#sorry for completely vanishing dudes

[daily-xb]

day 99: get slowed fish mans

@daily-ethoslab

[ckret2]

Chapter 43 of suddenly human Bill Cipher is pretty eager to remain imprisoned inside the Mystery Shack:

The Eclipse: Part 1

Gravity's disappearing in Gravity Falls. Bill has an explanation for what's going on that has absolutely nothing to do with him, and also doesn't make any sense. Fiddleford has an alternate theory that makes a lot of sense, and has a whole lot to do with Bill. Ford trusts Fiddleford.

####

"An eclipse," Ford repeated. "Gravity's vanishing, you're floating, and you expect me to believe that it's due to an eclipse."

Bill shrugged. "I don't expect anything out of you. Believe whatever the heck you want. That's what it is, though."

"Even if it wasn't a ridiculous notion, there aren't any solar or lunar eclipses anywhere near Oregon this summer—"

"Did I say the eclipse was solar or lunar?" Bill asked. "No. I didn't." He breezed past Ford, heading to the kitchen. "Hey, is anybody gonna eat those pancakes?"

"Mine." Dipper ran past Bill to his abandoned plate.

"Then what kind of an eclipse is it?" Ford demanded.

Bill leaned on the kitchen counter, crossed his arms, and pursed his lips thoughtfully. Finally, he said, "Gravitational eclipse."

"There's no such thing!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Dr. I Think Having A Mere Five PhDs Means I Know Everything! Please, enlighten the trillion-year-old all-seeing eye who spent a year correcting all your math with your superior knowledge of physics!"

"It's twelve PhDs and you know it."

"Oh, so what! I can still count 'em on one hand." (Dipper gave Bill's hand a puzzled look.)

"Is that how it is!" Ford huffed angrily. "Fine, great teacher—would you be so kind as to educate your student on what the devil a 'gravitational eclipse' is!"

He fully expected Bill to start spouting some absurd science fiction explanation; but instead, Bill hesitated, gaze flicking nervously toward the ceiling. Ford looked up, but didn't see anything.

"Just don't worry about it." Bill rubbed his right eye. He turned away from Ford to watch Dipper struggle to squeeze pancake syrup out of an uncooperative bottle. "Everything will go back to normal in three days. Just—don't look at the sky."

"Why not?"

"Don't worry about it," Bill repeated.  "Hey, take off the lid and stick a knife in, you're never getting anything out that way."

"I've got it," Dipper said testily.

Soos came downstairs at about the same time Stan joined them from the hallway. "Dudes, I think something weird's going on," Soos said.

Ford turned his back on his fruitless conversation with Bill. "We've noticed. Gravity's decreasing."

Soos paused. "Oh," he said, slightly deflated. "I thought I was developing super strength."

"Sorry to disappoint."

"So what's causing it?" Stan asked.

"I don't know yet."

From the kitchen, Bill called, "I just told you!"

Ford didn't look at him. "I don't know the real reason yet."

Stan asked, "Think it might be a portal thing? When it was powering up, gravity got kinda screwy. It wasn't like this, though. Any time there was a surge, gravity hiccuped for a few seconds. It never just... went down a little."

"And not for this long, either," Soos said. "It's been like this all morning." He paused; then asked, hopefully, "You sure we aren't just all developing super strength at the same time?"

Ford shook his head apologetically.

"Aww."

"I suspected the portal first," Ford said. "But I just looked it over and checked the equipment. There's no way any of it could have powered on. It's been completely disassembled since last summer." 

Stan shrugged. "What else could it be?"

"The gravity anomalies occurred whenever the portal was connected to the Nightmare Realm. All I can think is that perhaps it's something else with a connection to the Nightmare Realm that might be having a destabilizing effect on the fabric of reality. Something much weaker, but steadily regaining power..." He turned to cast a venomous look at the kitchen. "Power like the ability to float..."

Bill had been preoccupied with dipping a strip of raw bacon into a stolen uncapped syrup bottle; but at the accusation, he stared at Ford in disbelief. "What—are you kidding me?"

"Have a better explanation for why, the moment all this starts, you can suddenly hover down the stairs?"

"Sure," Bill said. "I'm better at floating than the rest of you because I've been doing it longer."

"Oh, that's stupid!"

"You're stupid."

"You're up to something," Ford snarled. "I know it."

"What could I possibly be up to!" Bill spread his hands, exasperated. "Seriously! Tell me! What could I possibly be up to?"

Ford screwed his face into a scowl, trying to think of any way Bill could have orchestrated the gradual decline of gravity while imprisoned in the Mystery Shack. "You are up to something," he said firmly.

Bill groaned and rolled his eyes. "Well if you ever figure out what, let me know! I'm dying to find out what I'm plotting." He chugged from the syrup bottle like it was a flask. And then had to keep holding it up while he waited for the reduced gravity to work on the syrup.

"Hey, Dr. Pines?" Soos held up his phone. "Just got a text from Tate. He says Old Man McGucket wants to know if you can come discuss the gravity issue?"

"I was just thinking the same thing. Let Fiddleford know I'll be there as soon as I can. Does he want me to bring anything?"

"Nope. Just your handsome face." Soos chuckled. "He—he didn't say that part, though. I did. I just think guys should compliment each other more."

Ford nodded solemnly. "Thank you, Soos."

"Grunkle Ford, can I come too?" Dipper dumped his dirty dish in the sink. "I could—I dunno—help brainstorm solutions, or something...?"

"I'd be delighted." Ford had wanted to spend so much more time with Dipper this summer. By now, he'd thought they would have had at least one hike through the mountains around Gravity Falls and maybe dug into a couple of old mysteries he'd never solved. At least this was one mystery Ford could bring him along for.

Dipper's face lit up. "Hold on, let me go get my journal." He ran upstairs, bouncing up two steps at a time in the reduced gravity.

Ford murmured to Stan, "You can hold down the fort while I'm gone?"

Stan nodded slightly. "I'll keep a close eye on him."

"Good."

When Dipper had returned and they were headed out the door, Bill called from the kitchen, "Keep your head down out there. And get inside as soon as you can."

Ford shot a dark look at Bill, but said nothing. "Let's go." He shut the door behind them a bit harder than necessary.

Soos headed into the kitchen to make breakfast. As he passed, Bill said, "Hey. Does the 'guys complimenting guys' thing only apply to humans, or what?"

"Oh. Uh..." Soos pulled his head out of the fridge to look at Bill. "You... look good in yellow? Is—is that a good compliment? I don't know what triangle demons consider a compliment."

Bill considered it. "Sure, it'll do." He dipped another strip of bacon in the syrup. "I look even better in gold."

####

A quarter mile from the shack, Ford drove over a small bump in the road he'd gone over a hundred times before.

The car bounced so high that Ford's head hit the car roof.

Somewhere, he just knew, Bill was laughing at him.

####

Dipper's knee had been bouncing for three minutes straight by the time they approached the gate to the Northwest Manor. "Dipper, are you alright?"

"Sorry." Dipper planted his foot flat on the floor. "It's just—we're driving really slow, and this whole gravity thing is kind of an emergency..."

Just nervous. "I know," Ford sighed. "I can't go any faster without losing control. Lower gravity means lower traction between the tires and the road." But it was driving him mad.

At the manor, Tate greeted them at the door with a slight nod. "Hey. Dad's in the lab."

"Thank you, Tate. I know the way."

When they entered the lab, Fiddleford was working with a soldering iron on an electronic device the size of a toaster. He looked up as soon as they came in. "Stanford, Dipper! Good timing. Come in. How's the shack?"

"Down a few rubber balls."

Ford left Dipper to drift around the lab inspecting Fiddleford's equipment and listening in on the conversation as he and Fiddleford caught up. Fiddleford had first noticed something was wrong during his usual morning post-coffee rambunctious rollick, when he leaped high enough to bang his head on the ceiling. ("All the way to the ceiling? In this house?" "Well, I was standing on the counter, you see." "Ah, of course.") He'd immediately built a vacuum chamber he could drop various tools and cutlery in so he could measure the acceleration of gravity. Usually, objects on Earth fell 9.8 meters per second. When Fiddleford first measured, falling objects accelerated by 7.9 meters per second—almost 20% slower than they were supposed to. Now, it was 7.7 meters per second. If that rate of decline was steady, gravity must have been going down overnight without anyone noticing. By Fiddleford's calculations, gravity was decreasing by around 1.5% an hour—and, if it continued at this rate, it would be gone the day after tomorrow, by early afternoon.

(Bill had said three days. That wasn't even two and a half.)

Fiddleford had done some scans and called some old college pals down in Texas to ask if they'd noticed anything strange—and it seemed that Gravity Falls was the only place in the country experiencing anything unusual, at least according to NASA's data. Fiddleford had asked Tate to drive around town dropping things; quelle surprise, the gravitational oddity seemed perfectly contained to the circumference of the town's weirdness barrier.

"If you're in communication with NASA, I don't suppose you could ask if..." Ford winced at himself, "they've... noticed any astronomical anomalies?"

Fiddleford stroked his beard. "I reckon I could, but—why?"

Ford sighed. "Bill said this is being caused by what he calls a 'gravitational eclipse.' Which sounds like patent nonsense, but—on the one percent chance he's telling the truth..."

"I getcha. That Bill's as trustworthy as a rattlesnake with rabies—but until we know what's happening, we ought to consider every possibility."

"Yes. Precisely." Ford paused. "Can... rattlesnakes catch rabies?"

"Absolutely not! Which is why you should never trust one what says he's rabid."

"Ah. Yes. I see," Ford said uncertainly.

Like Ford, Fiddleford's first suspicion was that this had something to do with the portal—a suspicion that was scuttled when Ford informed him he'd already checked the portal. Ford's own next theory was that Bill personally was somehow behind this. His gravity already seemed to be far lighter than the rest of the town. But Ford didn't know whether that was because Bill was causing the gravity-reducing anomaly, or because the gravity-reducing anomaly was disproportionately affecting Bill. And even if Bill was causing it, as yet Ford had no idea by what mechanism he was doing it.

Fiddleford had the first idea that might explain how this was physically happening: dimensional rips.

At the end of last summer, the town and surrounding woods had been lousy with small dimensional rips torn in spacetime by Weirdmageddon and its aftermath. A few had been large enough for a grown man to stumble through, but many were barely as long as a fingernail. Ford and Stan had spent the last few days of summer running through the town and the woods with the kids, armed with alien adhesive, glueing shut the rips; and then—after traveling back and forth to California to attend Dipper's bar mitzvah and to get hollered at by Shermie for disappearing and/or faking a death—they'd spent most of the next month taking care of even more rips. (Just enough time for gnomes to steal Ford's new Journal 4.)

The remains of the rips could still be seen throughout Gravity Falls: odd invisible seams in the air that seemed to make the woods behind them bend strangely, like the transition between air and water where light refracted differently. Sometimes the sun would line up just right with a gap in the leaves so that you could see a sunbeam bending in midair.

Fiddleford had two theories:

Theory one: even after they'd sealed up all the rips, the distressed fabric of reality around Gravity Falls had grown threadbare. Rather than a few huge rips tearing through to the Nightmare Realm, countless micro-rips were forming—hundreds of thousands of holes between the fibers of reality, too tiny to be seen or detected—and they were reaching critical mass. The structural integrity of reality itself was about to catastrophically fail. The barrier between here and the Nightmare Realm could shred apart at any minute, ripping open a massive maw too wide to ever be repaired, irreversibly swallowing Gravity Falls into Bill's dying dimension of madness and leaving a frothing pustule of chaos trapped inside the weirdness barrier, ready to spread across all of Earth if anything should ever pop it!

Or two: something else was happening.

Ford thought it was worth investigating. The damage was already there; maybe Bill knew it, was exacerbating it—perhaps by his mere presence—and was just hoping the humans wouldn't figure it out before his homecoming.

"You remember the wormhole detector I built last September to sense when new dimensional rips were openin' up?" Fiddleford asked. "Well, it ain't detected a thing in town since March—but if these micro-rips are real, they'd be too little to detect from any farther than forty or fifty feet. So's I whipped up a portable scannermadoohickey!" He picked up the object he'd been working on when Ford and Dipper arrived. "You can take it to the places with the most damage and wave it around to see if it senses anything!"

Ford inspected the scanner. "It says it's detecting eighteen right now."

Fiddleford waved him off. "That's fine, a few itty bitty little tears oughta be expected for the kinda damage we got last year. But if my theory's correct, there's somewhere in Gravity Falls that'll have hundreds of thousands of tears within the scanner's radius. That's what we're looking for."

"Great. And, what do we do if we find them? Such small rips would be impossible to individually seal with my adhesive applicator."

"I thought of that, too!" Fiddleford scrambled over two tables, knocking tools on the ground as he went, to grab a plastic cone-shaped object the size of a football. He scuttled beneath the tables back to Ford. "Look! I made a glue grenade!"

"A—a what?"

"Once you figure out where the micro-rips are concentrated, just pour that alien adhesive of yours into this spout here, pull the pin, and chuck it! It'll instantly seal up all the micro-rips in the area and then cover the whole town in a cloud of alien adhesive, closing any remaining rips!"

"Hmm... It sounds risky. It would use up the rest of our andhesive all at once," Ford said. "And the environmental impact could be devastating."

Fiddleford blinked. "Environmental impact?"

"Just think of an adhesive this powerful settling over the whole town and forest in a thin film. It would glue people's pores shut! They wouldn't be able to sweat! Imagine. And that's just one example of the potential consequences."

"Hm." Fiddleford scratched his head. "I could invent a body lotion with alien adhesive solvent?"

"Or, maybe we should only use the grenade once we're sure that such an extreme measure is necessary."

"Aww." Fiddleford kicked his foot in disappointment. "Hold on—let me at least whip up a spray attachment for your adhesive gun. So's you can patch up any clusters you find as you go." He darted between several tables, searching through drawers and tool chests for supplies, and then returned to his soldering station.

"Wait, hold on," Ford said. "In the space of a morning, you've built a vacuum chamber to calculate the gravitational acceleration in Gravity Falls, called NASA to get ahold of somebody to collect data across the rest of the United States, built a handheld version of your wormhole detector, and built a grenade to distribute alien adhesive?"

"I sure did!"

"And, how long have you been awake?"

"An hour and a half!"

Ford stared. "Where do you get your coffee?"

Fiddleford glanced across the room at Dipper, and whispered, "I'll tell ya later."

Dipper had drifted over to the miniature particle accelerator and was slowly circling it, inspecting all the pipes, trying to figure out how it worked. He was leaning over the trash can when Ford drifted over to join him. "Hey, Grunkle Ford? I... think there's a cat in here?"

"You don't know that!" Fiddleford shouted. "It could be dead!"

"No it's not, I can hear it meowing."

"That might be something else! You can't tell!"

"I could just open it—"

Fiddleford chucked an empty plastic spool of solder wire toward Dipper. "Don't you touch that!"

Dipper withdrew his hand from the trash can lid and looked at Ford, baffled.

"I'll explain how it works," Ford said.

While Fiddleford worked, Ford caught Dipper up on the details of the fuel they needed for the Quantum Destabilizer, the contraption Fiddleford had built to synthesize it, and the complicated way they'd tried to paradoxically (not) observe the experiment in progress. When Fiddleford came over to offer the completed spray nozzle, Ford asked, "Any progress on figuring out how to get this thing working?"

"No," Fiddleford sighed. "I've been lookin' into more stable paradoxes to replace the cat. But as far as the observer—I'd hoped usin' twins might just get close enough, but I've redid my cac'lations three times and I'm afraid the only way to get this thing working is by gettin' one person to both observe and not observe it at the same time. If we can just do that, we'd have all the fuel we need. But for the life of me I can't figure out how."

"Maybe if we had two versions of the same person from different dimensions..." Ford mused. "But that would require opening up a portal to reach another dimension, and there's the risk that uniting parallel versions of the same person might destabilize our entire dimension. It's not worth the risk."

"It sounds like one of those impossible riddles," Dipper said. "Like, 'If only a barber shaves people who don't shave themselves, and if anyone who shaves himself isn't a barber, then who shaves the barber?' Because if he shaved himself he wouldn't be a barber but since he shaves other people he has to be a barber..."

Ford said, "A second barber shaves him."

Fiddleford said, "He just don't shave at all."

Dipper paused. "I think I told it wrong."

Ford patted his shoulder. "But I think you're on to something. We need to think of this as a riddle; and every riddle has a solution. We just need to find it."

"After we save the town, right?" Dipper asked.

Ford smiled wanly. "One crisis at a time."

####

They agreed that investigating all the potential micro-rip hotspots around town would probably necessitate a camping trip—which was the only bit of good news to come out of this mess so far. Due to all of this summer's Bill bullsoup (as Stan had taken to calling it in front of the kids), Ford and Dipper had hardly gotten to see each other so far, much less do any serious paranormal investigating together. Hiking and camping while in search of the strange sounded like exactly what they'd been missing out on—and it would've sounded even better if the situation weren't so dire.

Ford and Dipper came back in the Mystery Shack as Shandra Jimenez said on TV, "Today's top story in Gravity Falls is that gravity isn't falling. Many residents recall similar incidents around this time last summer, when gravity intermittently shut off entirely, leading many to ask: could this possibly be another devastating effect of global warming? Temperatures today are—"

Ford scoffed. "Global warming. Of all things. Gravity is probably the only part of the environment it isn't affecting."

"I dunno, Ford, maybe you oughta consider it." Bill was sitting cross-legged on the couch, chin in his hand. He had his eye patch over the eye he'd been squinting that morning. "As long as you're already rejecting the real explanation to make up one you like better, why not go whole hog? Let's adopt a real crackpot theory."

"You want to talk about 'crackpot theories'? Global warming sounds at least as likely as an eclipse."

"That says a lot more about your education than it does about the theories."

Ford grit his teeth. "You know I'm one of the most educated men on Earth."

"And that says a lot about your planet's educational system."

Stan, sitting in his armchair reading the paper, folded it down to glower at Bill. "Stop antagonizing my brother."

"Tell him to stop making it so easy."

Ford grit his teeth harder, but ignored Bill. "Dipper, go pack your backpack. I'll check the basement and meet you when I'm done."

"Right!" Dipper hurried up the stairs.

Ford crossed the living room, checking the micro-rip scanner—88 detected rips, over five times higher than at Northwest Manor, but still nowhere near the 100,000 rip danger threshold. He'd see whether that remained true next to the portal. He paused next to Stan's armchair, "Stanley, do you remember where we stored the alien adhesive applicator?"

"Uhh... when's the last time we used it?"

"Last fall, right before we headed to Seattle."

Stan lowered his paper, staring at the ceiling. "I think we stored it in one of the lockers in the basement, right?"

"It's not there," Bill said.

Ford gave him an exasperated look. "And how would you know."

"Because the first day I came here, I emptied out all those lockers and hid their contents while I was waiting for the rest of you to get downstairs."

Ford smacked the back of the armchair, making Stan start. "So that's what happened to my infinity-sided die! Where the devil did you hide it?"

"Frankly, I don't think you're responsible enough to handle that kind of power," Bill said archly.

"Where's the adhesive applicator!"

"What do you need it for?"

"That's none of your business."

"Pity." Bill turned up the volume on the news.

Ford moved between Bill and the screen. "If you don't tell me where you hid it..." What threat could he make? This was the demon willing to threaten suicide if his captors didn't keep him entertained.

"Tell me why you need it."

"As if you'd give it to me if I did!"

"Maybe I'll find your cause noble," Bill said flatly. "Try me."

Oh, what did he have to lose. "Fine. I'm testing to see if imperceptibly small rips are opening between Gravity Falls and the Nightmare Realm. If they are, I'm going to seal them shut." He hoped the revelation would throw Bill off—he hoped he was close enough to the truth to shock Bill into giving something away.

Bill's eye widened, eyebrows shooting up; and then he burst out laughing. "That's what Specs filled your head with? Embryonic wormholes? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! And you're turning to him for an explanation when you've got a being with infinite answers sitting in your living room?"

Ford scoffed. "Sure, infinite answers—and just like the infinity-sided die, whatever I get is infinitely more likely to be trouble than anything useful. Now tell me where you put my adhesive applicator."

"I didn't put it anywhere." Bill held the remote out to the side to change the channel and stared at the TV straight through Ford, as if he didn't exist. "It's still in the basement. A little adhesive leaked out, I couldn't get the locker door open."

"Ha!" Stan slapped an armrest.

Ford whirled around to glare at him.

Stan held up his hands appeasingly. "Sorry! Sorry. That's not funny. Wasn't—wasn't funny at all. How dare you, Bill."

"I know, I'm just the worst."

Ford held in a harsh sigh and stalked out of the room. He didn't have time for this—not when they were on a deadline to prevent whatever was happening. (What if it became too late to reverse before gravity even reached 0%? What if they were approaching a tipping point when the whole sky would rip open?)

He opened the vending machine and headed downstairs.

####

He had to break the locker door to get the alien adhesive applicator out. He'd have to figure out how the nozzle had leaked before he stored it again.

According to the sensor, there were over a thousand micro-rips detectable just from standing near the portal controls. The number increased as he approached the portal itself; the highest quantity the scanner detected was nearly 5,000. Over fifty times higher than on the shack's ground level. It was clear some sort of damage had been done here.

But Fiddleford had said, for them to be concerned about reality shredding, there should be hundreds of thousands of micro-rips in one location. And Ford trusted any numbers Fiddleford gave him; wherever Ford tended to double-check his math, Fiddleford quintuple-checked his.

Even at the interdimensional portal itself—the spot where the veil between Gravity Falls and the Nightmare Realm had been ripped open and stitched shut so many times, the spot where the rift that nearly ended the world had been formed—there were less than 5% of the rips they needed before they started reaching dangerous levels.

Ford looked up at the portal, frowning.

The portal's torn and crumpled pieces lay against the cavern walls where he'd left them last summer.

Never mind. There were several other places that could be hotspots for micro-rips. He couldn't draw any conclusions about what was happening here until he'd checked them too.

But whatever was happening, it certainly wasn't an eclipse.

He added Fiddleford's spray attachment to the adhesive applicator and filled the chamber with a mist of glue, until the scanner read less than 200 micro-rips; then stopped by his study to grab a couple maps of the mountains around Gravity Falls, his antique lantern, and a tent; and headed back up to the house.

####

During their past year of travels, Stan and Ford had started keeping two emergency backpacks stocked in case they needed to flee on short notice. The backpacks contained everything they'd need to survive in the wilderness or a strange city for three days; and Ford had thirty long years of experience to teach him exactly what supplies that necessitated. He grabbed his backpack out of the guest room, and then spread out his map on the kitchen table to show to Dipper.

"If our micro-rip theory is correct, there are four potential places where I suspect they'll be most densely concentrated: the place where the interdimensional rift formed; where it was unleashed; where it was suspended for the majority of Weirdmageddon; and where it was sealed."

"And you've already checked the portal where it formed," Dipper said. "What about the place it was suspended? It was floating in the sky over town. There's no way we can get up there until gravity's completely gone, and by then it'll be too late."

"I've considered that. The closest we can get is Gravity Peak, but from there we should be able to get the sensor close enough to tell if there's an unusual amount of rips." Ford circled three spots on the map, and drew a dotted line connecting them. "We're heading out late, but we should be able to hit the locations where Weirdmageddon began and ended today. We can cross the lake to camp in the cavern behind Trembley Falls, get an early start, and take the hidden cave tunnel up to Gravity Peak."

"Not the best time for a hiking trip," Bill said.

Ford shot him an exasperated look. Bill was leaning in the kitchen doorway, arms crossed, smirking condescendingly. "Or maybe it is, if you're trying to avoid as much effort as possible," he says. "But I still wouldn't go if I were you. You don't want to be outdoors during an eclipse—and you don't want to be on a mountain when gravity comes back."

"Nobody asked you," Ford said, turning his back on Bill. "Now—cooking will be difficult as gravity decreases, but not to worry—" he unzipped his backpack, "—I've already prepared everything we'll need." Grinning, he pulled out what looked like a toothpaste tube with a "beef and vegetables" label. "Astronaut food!"

Dipper grimaced. "Great."

"You should have asked me," Bill said, a bit louder. "Considering that Specs is sending you on a wild goose chase. But hey, if you're that determined to waste your time, just don't say I didn't tell you so."

"You haven't even told us what an 'eclipse' is," Dipper said. "If it's not important enough to explain, I don't see why it's important enough for us to listen to you."

"Well said," Ford muttered.

"It's too important to explain," Bill retorted. "I've told you everything you need to know!"

Ford said, "Ha," and started folding his map to pack.

There were a few seconds of blessed silence; and then Bill walked into the room, leaned on the fridge, and glowered at Ford. "Listen. As far as you're concerned, the eclipse is probably harmless. It should peak in three days—"

"Fiddleford said at its current rate of decrease, it should be the day after tomorrow."

Ford expected Bill to argue; but instead, he frowned uneasily. "I—Sure, fine, whatever, he's probably done the math, I've just been eyeballing it. Did he say what time?"

Surprised, Ford said, "early afternoon, by his measurements."

Bill nodded vaguely, glancing again toward the ceiling. "Whatever time it happens—gravity will gradually decrease until totality, and then it'll come back very quickly, so—if you want to help your town so much, tell them that they don't want to be climbing trees in zero G. Otherwise, the best thing you can do is stay inside, wait for it to pass, keep your eyes shutduring totality—and do not look up."

"Why can't we look up?" Dipper asked.

Bill laughed derisively. "Would you stare at the sun during a solar eclipse? It's like I'm talking to babies!"

The last fraying thread of Ford's patience snapped. He seized Bill's hoodie by the strings and dragged him closer. "Enough!"

Bill flailed, kicking the table as he tried to back out of Ford's grip, and ended up losing his footing and landing on the floor. It was too easy to drag him around—he was so light. Ford leaned down to glare straight in his eye. "If you're so worried about how we're handling this eclipse of yours, maybe you should come with us!"

Horror bloomed in Bill's eye. "What? No no no, that's—that's fine, I told you everything you need, I'd just slow you down, I'd really be much happier in here—"

"I bet you would be," Ford snarled. "As far as I'm concerned, the fact that you want to stay inside so much is reason enough to bring you along! Either something out there scares you, or there's something in here you want to be close to during totality! Maybe something will happen at the portal! Whatever it is you want, I don't want you to get it."

"Grunkle Ford?" Dipper had gotten out of his seat and was looking uncertainly between Bill and Ford. "I'm not sure about..."

Bill's gaze snapped from Ford's face to Dipper's, and Ford could almost see the gears shifting in his head as he latched on to a more vulnerable target. "Kid. Remember when I told you there are things out there you don't want to meet? Stay inside—let me stay inside—find a good book to distract you the next couple of days, and don't worry about things you don't want to know too much about. As far as you should be concerned, this is a weather phenomenon. You don't want to dig any deeper than that. Stay. Home."

The corners of Dipper's mouth turned down. He grabbed Ford's coat sleeve and said, voice low, "Great Uncle Ford, I... I'm not sure he's lying. I've never seen Bill scared like this before. And when he told me about things in other dimensions, this gravity thing hadn't even started, so he couldn't have..."

"Unless Bill was expecting this to happen, and everything he told you yesterday was the groundwork to make us believe whatever he wants us to believe." Bill had wormed deeper into Dipper's head than Ford had realized, if it was enough to make him consider Bill's nonsensical claims. Ford should have asked more about what Bill told him yesterday. The monster could have been filling his gnephew's head with all sorts of nightmares. "Doesn't it seem a little lucky that he told you all that one day before this?"

Dipper grimaced. "I mean..."

Ford glared at Bill again. "I'm not buying it. And the more you make up ridiculous explanations like 'gravitational eclipses' and 'things from other dimensions,' the more you insist that this is somehow both no big deal and incredibly dangerous just to witness, the less I believe this is anything but a patently ridiculous attempt to keep us from interfering with whatever is about to happen! And frankly, that makes me want to interfere even more!"

Bill let out a strangled laugh. "You've gotta be... If you think I'm that suspicious, how do you know this isn't reverse psychology?! Maybe I want you to take me outside!"

"Maybe you do. That's the awful thing about you, Bill: I can second-, third-, and fourth-guess everything you say, and I'll never be sure I've figured out the truth! At some point I just have to make an educated guess."

There was a knock at the doorway. "Hey, Dr. Pines?" Soos leaned into the kitchen. "I heard furniture and anger. Is everything... uh..." He trailed off, taking in the scene—Bill on the floor backed up against the fridge, Ford crouched over him, Dipper watching anxiously. "Everything cool here?"

Ford got to his feet. "Dipper and I are going on an expedition—and unfortunately, he has to come along. Soos, do you have a spare backpack we can use for his supplies?"

"Uh, I think so—"

"Great," Dipper snapped. "This is just perfect. I've been waiting a month and a half for us to do something cool together, and when we're finally about to go on an expedition, it's ruined by him?" He gestured angrily at Bill. "He's already ruined the rest of summer!"

Bill said, "Hey, I didn't consent to this plan either."

"You shut up," Dipper snapped. "This is all your fault! You could have just left us alone, but...!" He let out a frustrated noise. He pushed past Soos out of the room and ran up the stairs.

Ah. Ford's shoulders slumped. Sometimes he wasn't quite sure where he'd misstepped in a conversation, but this time it was pretty obvious. Between this and the nearly-disastrous trip to Portland, Ford was well in the lead for Worst Grunkle of the Summer.

"Wow. You broke that kid's heart," Bill said. "Not too late to make it up to him by going back to the original plan."

Ford shot him a dirty look.

Bill shrugged. "I'm trying anything I can think of at this point!"

Ford sighed harshly, and left to follow Dipper upstairs.

Bill sat up and waited until Ford's footsteps had receded. Voice low, he said, "Questiony, listen, I need your help. Stanford's gone completely insane. You didn't see how he was ranting and raving before you got in here. Who knows what he'll do to me if he gets me alone outside the shack with only his junior sycophant as a witness—?"

Soos looked deeply uncomfortable, but he shook his head. "Not buying it, dawg."

Bill groaned.

####

Ford knocked, and gently pushed the kids' damaged door open a crack. "Dipper?"

Dipper grunted. He was sitting on his bed, chin in his hands, glaring down at his journal in his lap.

"Can I come in?"

Dipper grunted again. Ford wasn't being ignored, so he took that as permission to enter. He delicately sat next to Dipper and tried to figure out what to say next. (He was surprised at how firm the mattress was—and then realized the real reason he wasn't sinking as far into it as he expected.) "Dipper..."

"You don't need to say anything," he sighed. "You're right—Bill probably is up to something. If he wants to be in the shack so much, and won't give us a straight answer why, then... it's probably safer to keep him out of it." But he sounded so terribly resigned.

"All the same, I understand your disappointment," Ford said. "I'd far rather go hiking with you than with him."

Dipper nodded. "Yeah. It's just..." He trailed off.

"I know. I wanted this summer to be different, too." Ford sighed. "As soon as he's gone, I owe you another hiking trip."

Dipper nodded again. He mumbled, "I've never gone hiking before."

This was some way to experience it for the first time. "We could treat this like a practice round? A warm-up with lower gravity to make it easier. Next time will be a real trip—without any crises to worry about, and without Bill."

"I don't mind the crises," Dipper said. "I'm kind of used to them, actually. They're almost fun now."

In his mind, Ford knew that this was probably another thing that should earn him a Worst Grunkle award. But in his heart, he was proud of Dipper. That was an adventurer's attitude.

"It's just... I haven't been able to get away from him all summer," Dipper said. "And even when I'm avoiding him, Mabel's spending all her free time either with her friends or trying to reform him, and you're spending all your time trying to figure out how to kill him, so I barely see you two..."

And that wasn't even something Ford could blame on Bill, was it? He hadn't been spending his time trying to figure out how to kill Bill since he'd handed over the Quantum Destabilizer design to Fiddleford. He'd simply been... obsessing. Hiding and obsessing. Ford stared down at his hands guiltily. "Tell you what. As soon as this is over, we can go do—something. I don't know what yet, but we've got a couple of days to think it up. I've spent too much time underground the last few weeks, anyway. We may not be able to go on that big adventure until Bill's gone—but it's something, for now."

"Yeah, I'd like that. Thanks, Grunkle Ford." 

Ford nudged him. "And as long as you do have to put up with Bill for this trip... look on the bright side. Haven't you been wanting to get a crack at him without your sister around? See if you can pry out any more alien wisdom before his execution?"

Dipper huffed—but one corner of his mouth reluctantly quirked up. "Thanks, but I'm starting to think that's a bad idea. Every time I try, he just says stuff that gives me nightmares."

"Well—consider it an intellectually broadening experience."

Dipper gave him a weak smile.

"Anyway, with a little luck, it won't be long before you'll never need to deal with him again."

####

Soos had an old Monster-Mon backpack with cracked vinyl around the straps that he hadn't used since he outgrew it in fifth grade. "Lucky I didn't throw it out when we moved. You never know when you're gonna need old stuff!"

Bill had no idea what he was supposed to take on a forced camping trip. He knew what humans took, but humans craved all kinds of material comforts that meant nothing to him. After a couple minutes staring at the bag forlornly, he stuck in a spare shirt and leggings—he doubted he'd need extra underwear or socks, right?—and the Pony Heist bedsheet he'd been using as his sole blanket the last month, his toothbrush and toothpaste, a cider six-pack, two boxes of cereal, a kazoo, and the TV remote.

"I need some first-aid supplies. In case of emergency," Bill told Soos.

"Sure, whaddaya need?"

"Bandages, painkillers, matches, and a knife."

"You got—" Soos paused, then pursed his lips at Bill disapprovingly.

Bill sighed. "Bandages and painkillers. And cold medicine. Woods get chilly."

He glanced up as he heard footsteps upstairs. Not much longer until he was dragged outside. He grimaced. "One more thing, Jesús. This is important."

"Whoa. Full-first-name important?" He stuck a bottle of cold syrup in the backpack, hit something hard, and peered in confusion at the six-pack.

"Stanford's being petty and refusing to believe anything I say, but I know you're not that stupid," Bill lied. "So listen: this thing will peak in a couple of days and then go back to normal. It's mostly harmless to humans—but once the peak has passed, gravity's coming back like that." Bill snapped his fingers. "So anyone you want to come out of this intact needs to do two things. One, the moment gravity completely disappears, they need to anchor themselves, as close to the ground as possible, before it comes back. And two, do not look at the sky. Got it?"

Soos hesitated; but then nodded. "Y-yeah, got it."

"Understand?"

"Understood."

"Good."

"So are you like... trying to protect the town now?"

Bill laughed bitterly. "I'm trying to cover my base. When this is all over, even if all my warnings were ignored, at least nobody will be able to say I didn't try. I could have sat on everything I know! But I didn't! And I'm going to rub. It. In. Ford's. Face." He punctuated each word with a jab to Soos's chest.

Soos endured the jabbing with a patience Bill didn't deserve. "Byyy protecting the town?"

Bill opened his mouth, reconsidered, and said, "Sure! Of course I'm protecting the town! Why would I want any harm to befall the citizens of my once and future capital?"

"I mean, no offense, but you befelled a lot of harm on us last year—"

"I did not," Bill snapped. "Everyone was perfectly comfortable in my throne of frozen human agony." He yanked the backpack's zipper shut, pulled it on, and pushed Soos aside to leave the kitchen.

Stan had stopped Ford at the foot of the stairs. "But if this is some nightmare dimension thing, isn't that just another reason not to take Bill outside? What if one of those wormholes opens up and he dives through? Maybe escaping back to his dimension will give him his power back, we don't know."

"I've considered that—but if that is what he's planning, all the more reason why he should stay with Dipper and me, so we can stop him if he tries anything."

"Are you nuts? It'll be two of you in the woods versus four of us here in the shack! We outnumber him more than you do! Plus walls and doors!"

"We have the hexed bracelets, he won't be able to escape us," Ford said.

"Aww, I get to share matching friendship bracelets with someone?" Bill gave Dipper and Ford what he hoped was his most obnoxious smile. "Who's the lucky guy?"

Scowling, Dipper raised his hand.

Bill's smile dimmed. "You are the lesser evil," he admitted grudgingly. "But I'm surprised ol' Six-Fingers doesn't want to keep as tight a grip on me as possible."

"We decided that if you try to kill your bracelet partner and escape, Grunkle Ford would have a better chance of avenging me than I would have avenging him."

Bill's brows shot up. "Ruthlessly utilitarian. Was that Stanford's idea?"

Ford ignored the question, pushing on with his conversation with Stan: "And anyway, there might be more people in the shack, but none of them would be me. I know him better than anyone else."

Bill laughed hard enough that his feet momentarily lifted off the floor. "Oh do you!"

Ford's gaze shot to Bill's face, eyes blazing with fury. "You know I do. I've spent thirty years learning every trick, every lie, every betrayal that's made you who you—"

"What's my favorite food."

Ford's mouth worked uselessly. "That—doesn't matter—"

"You think you know my innermost soul when you don't even know my favorite food?"

"Favorite... human food, or...?"

"Oh, sure, I'll give you a fighting chance. Human."

Ford chewed on the inside of his mouth for several seconds. Finally, he said, "Jalapeños."

Bill crossed the entryway, leaned into the hallway, and took a deep breath. "HEY, MABEL!"

From the far end of the house (where Mabel was seeing how high she could jump in the floor room), she shouted, "YEAH?"

"WHAT'S MY FAVORITE FOOD?"

"NACHOS WITH CHOCOLATE SAUCE AND SUMMER-SHAPED SPRINKLES!"

Bill gestured down the hall, ta-da. "THANK YOU!"

"I was close," Ford grumbled. "Nachos have jalapeños."

Stan said, "You're not even out of the house and he's getting under your skin. Are you sure you wanna—?"

"I am not," Ford said, "leaving him in the house. And if you'd heard how he was fighting to stay under this roof, you wouldn't trust him in here either."

Stan looked at Bill.

Bill looked Stan dead in the eyes and said, "I don't know what he's talking about. I agreed to go as soon as he asked."

"Oh, shut your—" Ford snatched the bracelets off the coat rack, flung one end at Bill, and handed Dipper the other. "Put these on. We're leaving."

Bill scowled, but considered his odds of successfully resisting, reluctantly put his end of the bracelet on, and yelled down the hall, "BYE, MABEL! I'M BEING KIDNAPPED BY YOUR UNCLE AGAINST MY WILL! I MAY NEVER RETURN!"

"I'LL MISS YOU FOREVER!"

Ford opened the door and gestured impatiently. Bill took a couple reluctant steps closer, but stopped to look at Soos and say, "Remember what I said. Do not let Mabel be in the air when gravity comes back, you know if someone doesn't watch her she'll launch herself as high as she can—"

Ford snapped, "Either you walk or I drag you, Cipher."

"I'm coming." He stepped outside, paused, and cast a worried look at the sky; then squeezed his eyes shut, lowered his head, and walked into the sunlight.

####

(That's this week's chapter! I'd love to hear your comments and thoughts. Next week: I'm gonna do my level best to shatter your hearts. Look forward to it!)

[cher-rei]

love love loved your recent trent fic!! could you please do another trent fic where him and reader have been besties for years but trent finally got out of the (best)friend zone, they’re on their first date and he’s super nervous? and reader is like ‘bro it’s me? why are u being so weird??’ but she doesn’t get just how long he’s waited for this. it’s a cute fluffy giggly first date where they navigate the new dimension to their relationship as they go from friends to lovers. thank you!! 🫶

one at a time [ T.A.A ]

I remember when I first noticed that you liked me back [k- cigarettes after sex]

pairing: trent alexander arnold x fem!reader

summary: you thought that it'd be easy leaping into a relationship with your best friend of five years, but your first official date with trent didn't go quite as planned which calls for a moment of anxious driven honesty

genre(s): new relationship, fluff with some angst

[wc: 2.05k] masterlist

notes: I had this marinating in my drafts forever, I'm so sorry anon😭😭 but I hope that you like it because I'm actually in tears help

trent knew that you weren't really a fan of restaurants, and to make you leave the house at 7 in the evening, only for it to start raining out of nowhere was an entirely different story. so why were you doing this exactly?

the two of you had just sat down at the table that trent had reserved at some fancy restaurant with a name that you didn't even want to attempt to pronounce. there was quite a bit of space between you and the other guests, seeing as it was quite reserved and you couldn't help but be grateful for the fact that your date wasn't going to be interrupted by someone asking him for a picture.

trent sat across from you in silence, the only other noise being the silent chatter from the other tables. it was unlike him to be this quiet but you were too caught up in the menu, joking about the dishes and their prices despite the simplicity of it.

you stifled a laugh at a memory, immediately wanting to tell trent but he was completely out of it. it looked as if he was holding his breath, lips pursed so tightly that they'd nearly vanished.

"dude are you okay?" you put the menu down and leant forward to get a better look at him. "you haven't said anything in like ten minutes."

he was speechless, every word lodged in his throat and he was sure that there were beads of sweat trickling down his forehead. you looked gorgeous. he couldn't even form a single coherent thought because he was absolutely memorised.

you were wearing the prettiest thin-strapped, black silk slip-on dress he'd ever seen, your bare shoulders (as crazy as it sounds) had him spiralling. it reminded him of the day he saw you in a spaghetti strap top, the comment of "you have a really nice collar bone. your shoulders too." slipping from his tongue without much thought.

that was 4 years ago, and here he was in a similar situation in a daze. as you sat across from him with such ease, your eyebrows furrowed in slight worry he couldn't help but wonder why it took him three years to accept the fact that he liked you, while it took another year to actually tell you.

what he didn't expect however was a pit of anxiety to form one month into your relationship. this was your first date as a couple and he was already blowing it— 30 minutes in and he hasn't said anything.

you on the other hand were growing more frustrated as the minutes passed. a heavy sigh left your lips, "you're not even listening are you?"

trent didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry." he swallowed hard, the realization slipping in that he was making this awkward. "I don't know what's going on with me right now."

you watched as he eased back into his chair with a hard swallow. this wasn't going to go anywhere and you could tell. you tried to blame his behaviour on work-related stress and came to the only logical conclusion at this given moment.

"this isn't going to work." trent eyes shot open in shock, afraid that you were referring to the relationship but you caught on. "I mean the date. today isn't a good day, so let's just go home okay?"

he fucked up. he could see it in the glint of anger and hurt in your eyes, a pang of guilt hit him like a truck when you stormed out before him. and the idiot that he was, only took off after you at least a minute later, only to find you angrily standing in front of the car in the rain because he had the keys.

when you both got into the car, no one said anything. the tension was thick and you felt as if you were suffocating just by being close to him and you couldn't help but want to cry. you were so uncertain about your relationship after this, especially since you liked him to the point of insanity.

your five-year friendship was something that you cherished so deeply, something that made you feel so safe and loved— yet here you were feeling like giving into your feelings was a mistake. when you first met him through a mutual friend you didn't expect the boy to become such a crucial part of your life.

the friendship started slow, but from the moment you got locked in an elevator together you found yourselves spending every waking moment of the day together. it was easy, so effortless and he was so caring and sweet that you couldn't not take a liking to him.

and when he confessed first it took you a minute to realise that he was serious your— eyes widening with an "Oh..." before he kissed you so gently that you went home that evening with the moment replaying about a thousand times.

but after a few days, something shifted. and this date only proved your suspicion right.

trent looked at you in the passenger seat, your back facing him as you stared out the window, your hair still damp. it was a risk but instead of going home like you wanted, he pulled over which raised some alarm for you.

"I'm sorry about tonight." was all trent could manage, a lump of guilt forming in his throat as he continued to watch the rain fall onto the windshield. and when you didn't answer him he felt like the earth had just swallowed him whole.

a pang of hurt washed over you at the sincerity in his tone, enough to make you sigh and turn to look at him— your lips pursed and your hand reaching out for his.

in truth, you weren't upset with him. you were just confused and so damn uncertain about everything. you were upset with the fact that he wouldn't tell you if something was bothering him, if he was uncomfortable or wanted to call it off. even if it was going to shatter your heart to pieces, he was still your best friend and mattered more than anything.

you urged him to look at you, he was hesitant at first but the look in his eyes made you melt. "talk to me." you ran your thumb over his hand, reassuring him that you weren't mad at him. "I need to know what's happening so that I don't end up storming out of this car in the rain."

it took him a moment to let out a deep breath and he shut his eyes tightly. "you."

your heart dropped to your stomach, and a hallow feeling entered your chest. "me? am I bothering you?"

when he didn't reply you gently let go of his hand but he was quick to pull it back, his eyes widened in realisation of what he said. "shit no, I don't mean that you're bothering me--" he fumbled over his words, "--I mean you are but not in the way that you think."

by now, your eyebrows were furrowed in utter confusion. you genuinely didn't know what he was trying to say, and his nervousness wasn't making you feel any better. "trent if you're going to break up with me in your car in the middle of the rain I swear to god I'm going to--"

"--I'm not breaking up with you!"

you threw your hands into the air, confused beyond recognition and slightly hurt. "then what are you doing?"

your raised tone made him groan in frustration. why couldn't he just say what he wanted to? "I don't know okay?"

your shoulders tensed up. "you don't know? are we just some big grey area now? you need to talk to me."

trent slightly shook his head, "its not that easy."

"it's not that easy?" your voice raised slightly as you repeated the question, dumbfounded. "dude it's just me. that should make it easy."

five years of friendship and now he choking up unable to talk? it's not that easy. those words rang like a funeral bell in your mind, echoing as if it were signifying your impending doom. was this it? two weeks was all it took for him to get sick of you? to make him feel uncomfortable?

trent scoffed and ran his hands over his face. and you were visibly not happy by his "amusement" to any of this. "do you find all of this funny?" you asked in genuine hurt.

he shook his head again and mumbled something under his breath. "you just called me dude."

"so? i always call you dude but that's not the issue right now."

"that's my point. this is all so casual for you, so normal and for me it's just--" just as he thought his thoughts were finally able to make any sort of sense, it got caught in his throat again.

you watched in utter shock as he groaned and tried to collect himself. this was the first time you'd seen him battle with his thoughts like this, nothing but uncertainty and frustration floating in the air but you waited for him to finish instead of interrupting.

this was new. you've had arguments before, but none of actual importance. but this— your opinions and demeanours clashing so easily made you realise that this was a completely different territory. it wasn't just petty arguments anymore and making up in five minutes, it was the need to communicate and understand each other.

your relationship held a much greater weight now and it was only the beginning.

"I've wanted this for such a long time," he spoke finally and caught your attention. his softened gaze settling on you, his best friend. "I've wanted you for such a long time and now that we're actually together it makes me nervous."

your lips parted in shock.

trent stifled an embarrassed laugh. "you make me fucking nervous. I can't believe I was able to be around you for three years while feeling like this and not mess our friendship up. I look at you and my palms begin to sweat, you laugh and my heart melts, you say my name and I feel myself blushing like a stupid kid."

oh this was not what you were expecting.

"when I look at you, I don't just see some idiot who looked at me like I was some alien when we first met— when I look at you, I see the girl who comes to all of my matches in my jersey, I see the girl who makes me want to shower her in every single bit of my love, I see the girl who makes me feel at home and loved."

by now you were crying, holding back the sobs and instead just letting the tears fall from your cheeks that trent was trying to wipe away, a smile on his face as he looked at you adoringly. like he didn't just make you think that he was going to break up with you.

oh, this was the boy you fell hopelessly in love with for sure. every single bit of him and his stupidity.

"when I look at you, I see my entire world."

you sniffled. a lot. absolutely out of control, nothing but incoherent mutters coming from your lips as trent pulled you closer to him for a hug. the tears fell helplessly into the crook of his neck where your flushed face was buried.

a teasing smile danced across his face. "why do you have to cry for everything?"

you pulled away from the hug and wiped the last of your tears and took a deep breath. you were so overwhelmed by everything that he said that you could barely think straight. "shut up, that was practically a proposal speech."

his smile only grew and he couldn't help but lean in for a small kiss, and left another one on your flushed cheeks. "we're nearly there anyway, might as well."

you hit his arm at the comment. "I hate you so much."

he caught your lips with his, a soft and meaningful kiss that left you both with an entire swarm of butterflies pounding their way out of their confinement. "well that's too bad, because I love you."

[fic-dumpster]

The road so far

Summary: Have you ever wondered what goes through a writer’s mind while she’s trying to complete the stories you like so much? Well! Wonder no more! Here’s a first look into a writer’s unstable mind!

Characters: Bonten against Omi (no x because it’s war)

Word count: 1K

Content Warnings: fighting, slight breaking of the fourth wall, sitcoms, crackfic, it’s a joke. Yes, it can be read as x reader… just pretend. Hostility, a meme, DIH references, other fandoms mentioned.

A.N: TAKEOMI IS NOT OMI. I am Omi. I wrote this in 15 so it’s very rushed. idk… this is me trying to portray my internal struggles while I write. I just worked joke of 1000 words… and yes, characters never listen to what we want.

“If you think we’re gonna cooperate with you after leaving us for almost three years, you’re delusional,” Kokonoi crossed his legs once he sat down in front of Omi.

Omi had called a meeting with Bonten in hopes of coming to an agreement. She needed to work on her WIPs but her characters weren’t cooperating.

“As a matter of fact, I am delusional,” Omi answered, sipping from her water bottle, “anyway, I just need to finish the rest of the meetings and we’re done! Swear!”

Around her, the rest of Bonten sat with serious faces. Nobody was happy to be there. After her disappearance a few years ago, things weren’t quite as peaceful between them as they used to be.

“Yeah, yeah. I see how you are. Use us and drop us.” Sanzu sounded bitter and angry. He didn’t take the vanishing so well. He had bonded with her and she just left him. That wasn’t right in his book.

“Ugh, women…” With a sigh, Rindou stretched his long limbs, showing how tired and stressed he was.

“What do you mean ‘ugh? Women?’” Omi harshly questioned Rindou with a frown on her face.

“Nothing…” he replied nonchalantly, sitting up straight once again.

“Forget that! You clearly have preferences for certain members.” As she heard that voice her skin began to crawl. Hair standing on end, Omi slowly turned towards the source— once she saw his obnoxious face, only irritation was left behind.

“Oh, shut up, Ran! I wrote your story with your brother first! Why are you complaining?” She quickly replied, raising her hand in protest.

“Because he’s one of those,” added Mochi in a whisper.

So much of a whisper that was… half the men present burst out laughing which caused Ran to sigh in frustration. He was done. So many years and he still didn’t know what the hell that meant.

“We can't just hop back in,” Takeomi’s voice raised above the hysterical laughter of his peers.

Omi deflated at his words. She dreaded the worst… Was this how things were going to end?

“Please, I’ll do anything! I can’t leave the story like that!” Her eyes began to water as desperation crept in.

“Well, too bad! You left!” Sanzu’s bitterness didn’t falter, not even at the sight of unshed tears in her eyes.

“I said I was sorry! And I was busy with life, you know?”

“Yeah? Life? Then who are those guys? Rhysand? Sylus? Jinshi?” Sanzu spoke each name with disdain.

“Yeah! Who’s Umemiya? And some dude named Hoshina?” Rindou backed him up.

“More? I only heard about Sanji—” Kakucho suddenly intervened but was cut off by Omi.

“Okay! Stop! Oh my gosh!! Stoop!” Omi’s face had changed three different types of red in the last few seconds, “That… has nothing to—“

“Bullshit! I call bullshit! You created a different blog for the Stylus guy!” Sanzu was not dropping the subject.

“Oh my gosh! Let it go! And his name is Sylus!”

“AHAA!” Pink hairs wildly flew everywhere as Sanzu stood up and pointed an accusatory finger at Omi.

“Just… just help me write the few chapters I’m missing and the end. That’s all I’m asking… I lost the WIPs and I can’t by myself…” she pleaded. Internally praying they understood her dire situation.

“What do we get in return?” Mikey finally spoke after observing the back and forth between his men and Omi.

That sentence perked her up. A ray of hope finally came in between the stormy clouds.

“What-what would you want?” She asked with bright eyes and a new determination ignited.

“We can discuss that later,” Mikey waved his hand dismissively.

Omi nodded eagerly in return. Finally! Some progress. “Okay, fine… that’s good…”

After Mikey’s short exchange of words, they decided to end the meeting. It was time to move forward and begin working. Everyone stood up and began to leave the room.

They saw Omi move to the side with Takeomi and they started to talk amicably, with smiles and very friendly hand gestures. It was like time had never passed for them. She didn’t treat him differently and Takeomi seemed comfortable with her.

“Why does she like the old man…” Kakucho wondered out loud.

“It’s the daddy issues, I bet,” Sanzu was seething as he kept watching the scene play in front of him.

“What did you say?!” You turned your head like the exorcist once you heard those words leave Sanzu’s lips.

“Does she have superhuman hearing? How the hell did she hear you?” Ran said with a bit of panic in his voice.

And it began. Omi had been chasing the pink-haired man for a while now…

“I DON'T NEED YOU, SANZU! I CAN FINISH DIH WITHOUT YOU!” But before she could catch him, a pair of hands caught her first, “UGH! KAKUCHO LET ME GO! HE’S DEAD!”

Meanwhile a bit further away from the commotion.

“We have agreed to help her. Was it really necessary to do all the drama?” Questioned Takeomi to Mikey and Mochi. The three men watched the rest battling it out.

“We voted and the majority chose to make drama before agreeing,” Mikey said as his eyes followed Sanzu speeding away from Omi,

“Even Koko?” Mochi was surprised by that information.

“Even Koko.” Mumbled the short man.

“RAN, YOU TOO! BOTH YOU AND SANZU ARE DEAD!” Omi yelled, still being held by Kakucho who was trying to help diffuse the situation.

“What did I do?”

“YOU’RE ONE OF THOSE!” She kicked her feet in an attempt to be let loose, “I SHOULD HAVE KEPT WRITING FOR HAIKYUU! They wouldn’t treat me like this!”

“Yeah? Well, go and play ball with your sporty boys!” Ran screamed back.

“You’re insufferable!” Omi screamed as she tackled Ran to the ground.

“She became way more violent in the years we didn’t see her,” Mikey commented and the rest of his executive nodded in agreement. Everyone just watched Omi and Ran scuffling on the floor.

Bonus:

Omi: and then you do as it says here *points to the script*

Kakucho: that’s too mean. I don’t want to do that.

Omi: you’re a criminal! How is it mean to push her face down and—

Kakucho: shhh no please *blushing*

Omi: I’m working with amateurs… *throws her stack of paper into the trash*

[slvttysstuff]

REBOUND chapter 3

(jay jo x reader)

Chapter 1:

https://www.tumblr.com/slvttysstuff/738042134255583232/rebound?source=share

chapter 2:

https://www.tumblr.com/slvttysstuff/738478643741884416/rebound?source=share

summary: months after shelly and jay broke up he found himself in a relationship with you while he hasn't moved on yet from his past lover (shelly)

Warning: angst, grammatical errors

Note: I'll be taking some scenes from the original story line of wb and I'll be changing some of it also^^

⊹¤.•⨳•.*☆✬✬☆*.•⨳•.¤⊹

Weekend ended as fast as I thought and now I'm standing outside the room debating whether I should enter or leave and stay at home for a couple of days, Im not ready to see him yet..

Recalling what Vinny told me I closed my eyes as I hold my breath, slowly opening the door, Suddenly before I could fully opened it someone already did it for me, Dom screamed as soon as he saw me

" ahh- god! You scared me! " Dom yelled as he put his hands on his chest, I mumbled a small sorry to him " what are you even doing outside the door? " Dom asked " anyways, you're nerdy boyfriend is waiting for you " Dom continue as my eyes completely went from Dom to jay who was already looking at me though his glasses, I Immediately looked away not wanting to have staring contest with him

' just ignore him, what's so hard on ignoring someone..or just act normal like before when you were still on your right mind '

Suddenly vinny's words rang through my head, I grip my bag tightly, I looked back at Dom and giving him a small smile before walking inside the room, I sat on my chair that was near at the window, once I sat there, I took my books and start studying before the class started

I feel a pair of eyes looking at my way but I didn't bother to look who it was, it's pretty obvious that it was jay

Dismissal time appered and everyone was now leaving the room while the others were packing up their bags, I was currently putting my belongings back to my bag when minu entered the room and talking about having a training after class today as he asked if the others will be attending

" hey nerd you going? " Minu asked, " yeah " jay answered which made me feel nervous, I'll be training with him fuck.

" you're being quiet today y/n? Are you okay? " Yuna suddenly went to my side as she holds my shoulder looking at me, " i-im fine Yuna thank you " I answered smiling at her gently her worried look hasn't vanished yet, she looks like she's not believing what I said

" what about you y/n? You going? " Dom asked I looked at them who were already looking at me, I nodded my head as an answer " did something happened to the two of you? " Minu asked as he keeps on looking at jay and me " you haven't Interacted yet since this morning " Dom said agreeing on what minu said

maybe I should tell them now

Silence engulfed us, no one dared to talk or speak, I sighed feeling uncomfortable

" we broke up " I answered earning a shocking look from Dom, minu, yuna and Mia while jay was only looking down at his book pretending not to be bother by what I've said

" we should get going now guys so we can practice " I said I acted as if my words didn't hurt me, I gave them a small smile " don't think about what I said, it's completely fine, jay and I talked about it " we did not " right jay? " I said as I looked over to jay who looked at me after I called out his name, everyone looks at him waiting for his answer " yeah.." he answered

" I hope June recovers quickly" minu said as he sighed, last week June was gang up with some dudes, they beat him up and his bike then after some day jay also encountered the same guys who beaten June, luckily we were there to help jay

" I'll beat those motherfuckers when I saw them again " Dom said as he clenched his fists but only to received a slap on the head by Yuna " you idiot! Will you stop acting so though? Stop getting into fight! All of you " yuna said scolding us

" the tournament again was near, who do you think we will race next? " Minu brought up while everyone just shrugged their shoulders, I looked over to jay who was busy ready his book, we were currently having a rest that's why he took the opportunity to study again

" how can you move on when you kept on looking at him? "

Vinny suddenly said, I looked at him annoyed " I'm not looking at him " I lied " who are you looking at then huh? Idiot " Vinny said once again, I bit my lips not knowing what to say " t-the.." I stutter as I looked back at jay and starts looking for something to answer at vinny's question " yeah right! I was looking at the tree there! It was beautiful!" I said and pointed the tree, Vinny's looks turned sour as he gave me a ' the fuck are you saying ' look

" I swear! I was looking over the tree " I repeated as he rolled his eyes " idiot " he muttered, " I'm not an idiot" I said looking at him with full annoyance " I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to the tree " he said sarcastically, pointing the tree behind me I looked over to the tree and looked back at him only to see his finger pointing at me already, I slap his arms I was too bothered to not notice the eyes of the others looking at our way

" since when the two became so close? " Dom muttered receiving a ' I don't know either' from minu, yuna, and Mia

You also didn't noticed the looks that jay was giving at the two of you, and he can't help but to feel jealous at the scene...

im debating whether to let you ended up with Vinny or still at jay😭 what do you think?

[ganondoodle]

im pretty sure i mentioned all these things before but its too late to start drawing anything and each time i see someone talk about totk i just get sad and frustrated again

literally by FAR the biggest problem about totk is that it REFUSES to connect to botw in any way beyond reusing the same map and character models, and even taking the things botw had established and ruin them entirely

ancient hero? BAM weird sonau dog thing that remains completely unexplained and out of nowhere eight heroine myster- BAM just some guy long gone sonau peopl- BAM here they are and they have zero connection to the ones of botw mystical dragons gracing the skies with their presence- BAM probably some dude who ate a magic pebble once strange mystical nature god you could rarely encounter in one specific spot and the area was made to feel utteraly unsettling but also divine- BAM now hes everywhere and only serves you as a shorthand for man pointing at cave the strange energy all shiekah tech was powered with with certain locations being ones where alot of it was concentrated including beneath hyrule castle clearly stating that somethings up with that- welp theres evil guy donw there but he has zero connection to all that lol

the whole shiekah tech thing, i just- WHY???? LIKE THAT??? there was so much stuff in botw that seemed deliberately placed that there IS more to it and now it all vanished and nothing of that mattered??? i saw a video of someone comparing certain places directly and on some where towers literally broke away tons of debris where just like .. sanded back down like nothing ever happened???; the fuking mechanism of how the towers and shrines and the pillars around the castle worked AND WHAT THE BOTW BOSS ARENA WAS ACTUALLY FOR?? its all gone and replaced with dirt; tHE ANCIENT FUCKING FURNANCES UTTERLY GONE AND REPLACED WITH ROCKS HUH???? so nothing of all that talk about their mystery and mechanism mattered???? the luminous stoens and its connection to spirits and how concentrated spiritual energy might have been what powered the tech- like you could connect things, and they made SENSE, so much sense that that seemed like it was intentionally setting up- only for it all to be just GONE?? to literally say lol it all vanished and that we shouldnt worry about it- like what the FUCK (and it also AGAIN doesnt make sense in itself bc WE SEE GUARDIAN PARTS in the towers, and some parts of them too are made of clearly shiekah tech stuff so it cant all have vanished- all their mystery doesnt matter bc idk it just works i guess lol and its not even called shiekah tech at any point either its just there and also not lol-)

(and even the smaller things like .. where the fuck does link live if everyone treats him like a goddamn stranger in the town you had to buy a house in botw for it to not be demolished and now that house is there but its not yours and noone knows you??? sth i personalyl found strange too that dumsda, the guy you help build an entire town, taburasa, had a very specific talking quirk i loved, and its all just gone in totk too, he talks like any other person all of the sudden

also at the end of botw finally being reunited with zelda and giving you the taste of being in the game WITH her at the same time in the intro to totk- WOOP away she goes! shes your pretty prize at the end and nothing more, what a way to disrespect her and her character..)

imagine if majoras mask didnt have the opening like it has and it otherwise stayed the same and they tried to tell you that its a direct sequel happening exactly where ocarina of time happened in the same world, zelda who?? ganondorf who??? things seem weird and off? lol dont worry about that :)) that would be weird and not make any sense at all now would it??

... sorry going on another rant again, ill just never be able to accept everything from botw didnt actually matter, and despite what some people might say, its pretty hard to ignore totk bc i LOVE botw, and as much as i hate it, they are connected in canon, even if it makes no sense

[3liza]

a guy with nothing on his blog called charlessomethingsomething just followed me and only me, sent me a series of messages saying he had been reading my posts for a while and wanted to talk to me etc that didn't SOUND like bot writing but who knows (average DM of this type from an actual human man does not pass the Turing test), so I asked him which came first, ranch or cool ranch, and he's completely vanished. presumably he either blocked me or deleted or was a bot that got reported to death. but 1. I have never gotten a spam bot message me ever (except the past week possibly but different post) and 2. I think(?) a bot would have replied with some GPT nonsense right away instead of letting a question sit in their inbox for hours so I think it was probably a real person who couldn't take the heat.

anyway whether Charles was a bot or not, it got me thinking because I've had more interactions with men like this than any other kind. you have GOT to work on your game if a little 2010s meme nonsense completely derails your attack. I'm not a valid DM-slide target because I'm not on here for dick, myself, but like if I WAS, you're not going to get anywhere just bailing out the first time someone says something silly to you. (sitting backwards in my chair and slapping the back of my hand into the palm of my other hand) listen to me. flirting works on community improv theater rules. you have to be ready to take that pass from left field and run with it. and if I WERE on here for dick I would disqualify applicants who couldn't keep up with clowning. I not only let him hit if he's goofy, i and many others will actively prevent him from hitting if he isn't. on Tumblr you don't have nice forearms or a good shower routine, you're just a thirsty dude with a dumb username and ALL you have is the bants, so they better be good. sorry

[imagininghim]

I Hate You And I Love You Part 2

A/N: I left the ending up to the reader. There will not be a part three! :)

Like, re-blog, and follow!

I turned to see Lucifer leaning against the counter behind me. 

“Lucifer.” I breathed out, “Where have you been?” I questioned, never taking my eyes off the blue-eyed devil. 

“That my dear, doesn’t matter.” He began, making his way over to me, reaching up he placed his hands on cheeks and he stared lovingly at me. “What matters is that I’m here now.” I looked at his face intently, looking for any sort of tell that he feels some remorse for what he’s done but instead he speaks up, breaking me from my thoughts. “What’s the matter my pet?” Breaking away from his grasp, I moved away from him, putting space between us before speaking up. 

“Lucifer, where have you been?” His brows furrowed in annoyance at my  question. 

“It doesn’t matter. You’ve never cared before when I’ve disappeared before, so why the sudden interest now?” I stared at him in anger. 

“Because usually when you disappear, you don’t go out and knock up another woman unless this isn’t your first nephilim?” I spoke with venom lacing my tone. In the distance I could hear a door close signaling that the boys had arrived home. Lucifer stared at me before beginning to chuckle until he was bent over in laughter. At that moment, Dean, Sam, and Cas had walked in with a young boy following closely behind. 

“Is that what has your panties in a twist? That I possessed some politician type dude and knocked up his secretary? Honestly, (Y/N).” Before I could respond, Castiel spoke up. 

“Lucifer, you have a lot of nerve showing up here.” Rolling his eyes, Lucifer turned to face Cas. 

“Really? What made you think I’d stay away fr-” Stopping mid-sentence, he looked past Cas and stared at the young boy. “Well, I see you found my offspring.” I turned my head to stare at the boy, he looked like he was about sixteen or seventeen. 

How is that possible? I mean I’ve read a little bit about and I had seen that they age rather quickly, but I didn’t realize it was this quickly. 

“This is the nephilim? You brought him here?” I snapped looking between Sam and Dean. 

“We were going to talk to you about it, but we heard the commotion so we rushed in.” Sam said sympathetically. Before I could respond, Lucifer spoke up. 

“Well, (Y/N). He’s all grown up and can take care of himself, you’ve got nothing to worry about. Now, come on, I’ve missed you.” Lucifer said with a smirk, making his way towards me. In the corner of my eye, I noticed the angel blade laid on the counter. Without a second thought, I picked it up and held it up to Lucifer. Glancing down at the blade and then back at me, Lucifer kept his smirk. “And what do you think you’re going to do with that?” I could hear the smugness in his voice as he spoke.

“You think just because he’s all grown up that any of this is okay?” I exclaimed, moving towards him until the blade was pressing against his chest. “Lucifer, you’re trying to start an apocalypse that will kill everyone… Including me.” I whispered the last part as I stared at him with pleading eyes. Lucifer's eyes softened as he spoke. 

“Oh my little pet, you will be fine. You will be my queen and rule by my side. No harm will come to you.” 

“I’m sorry Luci, but I can’t let you go through with this.” I reached my arm back and went to plunge the blade into him when I felt a piercing pain in my lower stomach. 

“(Y/N)!” I heard Dean shout but it sounded like he was miles away, breaking eye contact with Lucifer. I looked down to see that the blade hadn’t touched him but rather it was impaling me. I followed the hand that held the blade to see it belonged to Lucifer himself. 

“Lu-Luci.” I coughed out before falling to the ground, I stared back up at him to see a single tear stream down his face before completely vanishing. The sound of the angel blade hitting the ground is the only thing I can focus on, as Dean, Sam, and Cas rush over to me. 

“Cas, you got to help her!” I heard Dean shout before darkness overtook my vision.

***

I’m surrounded by complete darkness and the sound of my heels clicking is the only thing I can hear.

I keep walking in an attempt to try to figure out where I am. In the distance, I see what I believe is two glowing red eyes. I stop mid-step as a voice speaks through the darkness.

“Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?” In the distance, the moon came into view, un-shielded from the darkness. I glance down to see that I am dressed in a formal red gown. Looking back at Lucifer, he is in a full suit, a small smirk tugged at the corner of his lip.

“You always loved the irony of a bad situation.” I said, rolling my eyes, outstretching my hand. I intertwined with him as he pulled me into his cold chest, he slid his arm around my waist while still remaining intertwined with me. 

“No, my dear but I have always loved you.” Without a response, I looked off to the side into the darkness to avoid his impending stare. 

“Where exactly are we?” I glanced back to see his red eyes burning into mine. 

“We are, wherever you want us to be.” 

“Did I… Did I die?” I merely whispered out. Without breaking eye contact, he spoke. 

“No, you’re in a coma. Castiel tried to save you but you wouldn’t wake up. You’ve been this way for about three weeks now.” I let go of his grasp and backed away, putting space between us. 

“You.” I stared, raising my hand in a pointing gesture, “You did this to me. You stabbed me!” For the first time, he broke his stare from me as he looked into the everlasting darkness. 

“You gave me no choice.” He responded, dropping his arms to his sides. I laughed sarcastically at him,

“I gave you no choice? You not only abandoned me, but you went and slept with another woman and had a goddamn nephilim -”

“In my defence, I wasn’t in Nick's form when I did this.” I stared back at him in anger and disbelief, “Continue.” He said simply. 

“Does that really make a difference? You think because you weren’t in this particular form that it makes any of this okay?” This time, it was Lucifer who was rendered silent. I turned beginning to pace back and forth as I continued,  “But if none of that matters, you then tried to kill me. First by trying to make an apocalypse happen and then by stabbing me. I mean, that doesn’t exactly scream "I love you”, now does it?” I stopped and looked back at him, my mouth fell slightly agape when I noticed one singular tear stream down his face, his eyes were no longer glowing red but they were the soft foggy gray that I remembered so fondly. 

“I never wanted to hurt you, let alone try to kill you.” He began, never breaking eye contact, “When father made you, humans. I couldn’t quite understand why he was so fond of you all, I particularly despise all of the human race but that was until I saw you for the first time. From that moment on, when I looked at you, I finally understood fathers fondness but I only felt this fondness for you. It wasn’t until that time in Hell when I showed my true form that you were able to see my wings that I finally understood this fondness. I had found my mate. It was you.” I stayed quiet, he narrowed his stare at me as he continued. “ I would have burned this world and the next, if you asked. I did all of this for you! The apocalypse, the nephilim, everything! And for what?” He yelled out, I grimaced at his tone. Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath before speaking up. 

“I never asked for any of this.” In response, Lucifer scoffed. “When you met me, I was a hunter. I am still that same hunter. What makes you think that I would want an apocalypse or any of this?” I yelled out. Silence filled the room as I went on. “I-I loved you and you cheated on me. I went against Sam and Dean’s wishes when they begged me not to fall for the devil, I defended you when no one else would. I did everything for you, tried to be everything for you but I guess -” I let a tear down my face as I looked back at Lucifer to see his face softened. “I guess, I just wasn’t enough.” Within a flash, Lucifer stood in front of me cupping my cheeks, he brushed a tear away as he spoke. 

“You are more than enough. That woman was just a formality, she died at birth and would have never survived it. I couldn’t let that happen to you.” I sighed as he continued, “I never met to hurt you. Could you ever forgive me?” I looked up to meet his eyes, to only see they were glowing red. 

“Lucifer, I-I…” Before I could respond, I noticed a bright light shine behind Lucifer before I could realize what was going on. I opened my eyes to see that I was back in my room in the bunker. 

“(Y/N)?” I turned my head to see Dean sitting beside my bed. 

“Dean.” I breathed out. 

“Hold on, stay with me. I’m going to get Sam and Cas.” Dean shot up out of the chair he was sitting in and left my room. I leaned my head back and rested my eyes until I heard a voice coming from the corner of my room. 

“So, do you forgive me?” I opened my eyes to see Lucifer standing in the corner of the room. 

“I -”

The End.

[artificial-transmutations]

Two sides of the same coin - A day at the beach

The sun was beaming down brightly, and Ben had a wonderful day on the beach. He was on vacation and here with some friends. Being the only single in their social group, Ben often felt like the fifth wheel, but he didn't mind that. While the other guys were out with their girlfriends in the city, window shopping or sightseeing, Ben could just lay on his towel, soak up some rays and watch people going by - especially girls of course. There were a lot of beautiful girls here and at some times, Ben considered hitting on one of them, but the truth was that he was just too lazy. So instead, he enjoyed watching the ladies walking by while thinking about how hot they are.

Of course, there were also other men on the beach, for example the one not too far from him, sitting under a parasol and reading a book, while simultaneously looking at his phone. It probably wouldn't hurt that guy to get out of the shade and soak up some sun, Ben thought, considering how pale he looked.

Jason, the guy in question, was trying hard to relax, he really was. But neither reading nor browsing the occasional meme site really helped. Sure, he had his peace and quiet here, but he found himself watching the time pass, bringing him closer and closer to the end of his day off. Both off work (which he hated) and away from his wife (which he ha... found difficult at times). He sighed. He was already in his 40s and it felt like most of his life story had already been written. He was married, had no kids, worked in a dead-end public service job and each day was like the next. If he somehow had the chance to start over again, he would probably do things differently. Like, not marrying so early. He grimaced, as he saw another message from his wife dinging into his phone, checking up on him.

He put the phone down in the sand besides him, deciding not to answer. That would probably be a bad idea coming back to him this evening, but at least for now it gave him so much needed peace of mind. As he put down the phone however, he noticed a small object half buried in the sand. A small coin, glittering in the sunlight. He would need to have a closer look later, he decided and pocketed it.

Immediately, the coin vanished while still in his hand. Jason didn't have much time to think about it though, as not only the coin vanished but also his shorts, t-shirt and book, leaving him completely naked from one second to the other on his chair. What was happening?!

Ben had just looked at another lady walking by. As he looked back to the reading guy, he had to take a double take. He had barely looked away for a few seconds, but now the guy had undressed and was now completely nude!

Ben was not gay, but he was certain enough in his sexuality to recognize a good looking man. This was definitely not one of them. His skin was pale, he had literally no definition, a small belly and a tiny dick. Regardless, he found himself standing up and walking over.

"Dude! This isn't a nudist beach. Nobody wants to see that!" Ben said loudly, pointing at the man's crotch. The guy jumped up and covered himself with his hands, embarrassed.

"I'm sorry! I don't know what happened, I just..." stammered Jason. "I'm so sorry."

"Are you having a boner? What are you, some kind of pervert?!" Despite his disgust, Ben stepped even closer to the guy, violating his personal space now. He didn't know why he did that, but he just did. He also wasn't sure why he was so hard on the other man, who looked really embarrassed.

"I... do?" Jason asked, lifting his hands from his crotch, revealing his indeed stiff dick. "I'm so sorry! I..."

Something changed in Jasons head, forcing him to end the sentence different from what he intended. "I need to do something about that."

It wasn't Jason who was in control, but it was like an outside force had taken control of his arms now, grabbing the surprised Ben roughly at the head and pushing him down to his crotch. With a rough push of his hips, Jason shoved his cock inside Ben's mouth. Ben gasped for air and tried to pull away, but it was like his body refused to obey him. All he could manage was to keep his lips closed around the shaft of the other man's penis, sucking and licking it without hesitation.

Jason moaned and grabbed Ben's hair with both hands, pulling him harder onto his cock. Ben struggled against him but couldn't break free. His body seemed to move on its own. His face flushed red from exertion, a color that would not go away again.

Meanwhile, while he thrust his cock into the unknown other man's face, Jason felt like he shed away years with each thrust. His body felt more and more energetic and younger, regaining flexibility and developing new strength. Strength that he had never had in his entire life.

His belly retracted into his body, leaving behind only well-defined abs.

Ben was feeling weak. He had less and less power to resist the handling of the changing man in front of him, both physically and mentally. He didn't want this to happen, but it just happened. He looked down at his own body. The skin was lobster-red now, and he had shrunk considerably. Hadn't it been for the other man, who pressed his face to the groin, Ben would actually fall down, so short was he now. His feet didn't touch the ground anymore and his body was swinging between the other guy's legs like a pendulum with each thrust.

Ben was afraid and tried to cling to Jasons hips as best as he could. His arms didn't reach around the midsection of the gigantic body anymore, but at least this way, he felt a bit more secured against falling down, if the other man got tired of violating him.

Jason felt better and better. It was a beautiful day, and the corner of the beach was secluded enough that not too many people saw him as he handled his very large cock through the face of... Jason shook his head, as he watched his skin darken to a rich dark brown tone. His hair became a very short buzz cut and his face became square and masculine. The face of... No. What face? Jabari felt confused, and brought his other hand down as well, smoothing the flap of fabric hanging down from his crotch like a loincloth and drawing it in between his legs until it connected to the waistband on the other side.

Ben, no, the speedo, could hear his owner moan loudly, as the large black cock contained in its pouch pulsed and fed him his cum. The part that was still Ben was horrified of what had happened to him, but there was another part, which was nothing more than an object. A speedo, worn by Jabari, the beach life guard.

Jabari didn't hide the fact that he was gay, and sometimes, there were just too many hot guys on the beach, and he needed release. Fuck it if anyone saw him. He knew fair well that his hot chocolate body was what brought a lot of girls and guys to the beach, so he really didn't care about some indecency. Besides, he had been wearing his red speedo the whole time, so technically, he hadn't actually exposed himself.

If you liked this story, there is a good chance, you might enjoy the other "coin"-stories!

[deathofpeaceofmiiind]

illicit affairs | twenty two

*Ellie's POV*

It had been two weeks since we found our home, and life hasn’t shown any sign of slowing down. We had managed to sell my condo and Noah’s house within in a day of each other, and we finally closed the deal just a few days after that. I hadn’t much time to absorb any of what was happening but I felt incredibly lucky we were able to achieve this goal together. It also hadn’t sunk in how big of a step this was in our relationship, it was equal parts scary and exciting. 

Moving day was finally here and we were beyond ready to get into our home. We had spent most of our time decluttering, packing and eating way too much take out this week in preparation. I swear if I tripped over another moving box or had to eat another pizza I was going to lose it. Some of the guys had come up to visit us before heading on a fishing trip that Folio was dying to go on, so of course I put them to work first despite us hiring movers.

“Was that the last box of Liam’s?” Bryan asked as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. “It better be.” Folio whined, coming up behind him. “How many Lightning McQueens can one kid have?” “You just got here!” I scoffed as I entered the room, “also no such thing as too many Lightning McQueens.”

“Yeah dude, put some respect on the kings name.” Bryan added, almost offended at Folio’s remark. 

“Not my fault customs was crazy.” He replied, elbowing me in the side, causing me to shake my head. We had developed quite the brother/sister relationship over FaceTime and it was entertaining and annoying at the same time. I nudged him back, “then you can grab more boxes.” Folio rolled his eyes as he grabbed another box before heading into the hallway. Liams room was now empty so I walked back into the living room to see what was left, which was hardly anything. As much as I couldn’t wait to be in our home, it was such a bittersweet feeling to be leaving this place. I pictured myself being here for a long time, but then again I also never predicted Noah coming back into my life. In some way this was our first home together even it was for a short time. I felt Noah come up behind me, he wrapped his hand around my stomach as he gently kissed my shoulder.

“Ready?” I nodded as I felt tears prickle my eyes. “Yeah, I am.” “El…” Noah turned me around, wiping the one tear that escaped me. “What’s wrong?” “I’m sorry.” I sniffled, “this place just meant a lot to me, but I’m so ready to start our new chapter.” “Me too.” Noah assured me as we intertwined our hands together, walking towards the door. “This place brought us back together, I’ll miss it just as much.”

My stomach dropped watching Noah lock the door for the last time. I wanted to shake this unnerving feeling, what was happening was a such a blessing but selling my condo felt like I lost a part of my independence. I know Noah would never take that from me and it was something I just needed to get over. I didn’t say much on the drive to the house but the second I saw it, my negative thoughts vanished completely. My heart fluttered as I looked over at Noah who couldn’t control his happiness. Folio, Bryan, Davis and Jolly were standing on the lawn, all in Dad poses as they admired the house.

“I see you’re working hard.” I joked as I got out of the car. “I came up here to fish, look at some mountains and possibly find my own Canadian wife, alright?” Bryan said. “You did find one, you just blew it.” I snickered as I walked past them.

Bryan stopped dead in his tracks as his jaw dropped, “that was so fucking rude.” “You ghosted my friend, I’m allowed to roast you.” Everyone started to laugh as I went into the house. My knees almost gave out as I looked around and admired what was in front of me, I couldn’t wait to wake up tomorrow morning and make coffee in this kitchen. The movers were done pretty quickly and left us to begin our unpacking. Luckily they were nice enough to set up our bed and put our couch together. We sadly didn’t have a lot of furniture since Noah sold his home with all of his, and with me being in a condo I didn’t have enough to fill a house.  We agreed we’d do some furniture shopping before he headed back on tour. Ikea here we come. 

“So when do you think the studio will be ready?” Jolly asked as we all stood in the kitchen drinking beers and avoiding the heat. I was so thankful this house had air conditioning. “Probably after this tour.” Noah replied before taking a sip of his Celsius, “I just need to look for contractors and Matt needs to help me with the sound stuff. Once he gets here on Friday we can start doing planning.”

“Matt’s coming up here?” I spat out. My heart started to race and I felt everyones eyes on me as I asked my stupid question. I knew I’d have to see him eventually but I haven’t spoken to him since he left, so I don’t even know if he wants to see me.

Folio pursed his lips together, almost acting like a kid who was getting in trouble, “oh did Noah not tell you we’re throwing you a house warming party after we come back from fishing?” “News to me.” I muttered, bringing my beer up to my mouth and taking a longer swig than normal.

Noah mirrored Folios exact expression as he looked over at me, “I’m so sorry Ellie, we’ve been so busy with moving that I forgot to tell you.” All I could do was smile because I was still hung up on the idea of Matt being here with everyone. I know it was going to be impossible to avoid him considering he was part of the crew and I can’t let my issues with him cause any drama. I don’t know how awkward it was going to be being in the same room as your boyfriend and the guy you hooked up with during your break. My guess is pretty fucking awkward. 

“You ok?” The guys went to scope out Noah’s new recording space, so I decided to get a head start on some unpacking. I was in our bedroom looking for bed linens as Davis entered the room. I had to admit I never spent any one on one time with him so I was confused as to why he came looking for me. Honestly he was also a little intimating, he had this aura about him and had a stare that made my feet turn into concrete every time.

“Yeah.” I lied, opening up another box that was finally our bed sheets. I pulled them out and started to make the bed. Davis went to the other side of the bed and began to help me. I was still so confused on what his end game was here, but the help was nice. Trying to make a king size bed when you’re 5’1 wasn’t an easy task.

“Look, I know we haven’t really talked at all outside of the group, but…is Matt coming up here a problem?” “Kind of.” I sighed grabbing the duvet from another box, “I’m just annoyed that I’m letting this weigh on me so much because I’m happy with Noah and I’ve moved on.” “I know but him ghosting you has been the dumbest thing he’s done.” He added as he started putting cases on the pillows, fluffing them up before throwing them by the headboard. “If someone radio silenced me like he’s doing to you, I’d feel the exact same way you are.” “That’s what’s bothering me, is the unknown.” I sat down on the bed after we were done, sighing deeply. “I don’t know what will happen when he walks through that front door.” “Do you have any feelings for him?” “No.” I shook my head. “Me being with him made me realize how much I loved Noah still…I just wish I never jeopardized our friendship.” “I know, and you and Noah were made for each other.” He replied, leaning against the wall. “I’ve known Noah for a very long time, I’ve never seen him be so authentic with a women like he is with you.” “What do you mean?” “Noah is very private person and when he’s with someone he tends to put up a front because of who he is.” I was about to protest but Davis put his hand up, “you on the other hand never made him feel like that. You see Noah for who he is outside of bad omens and that’s so fucking rare for him. I never thought he’d be so committed to someone that he’d buy a house with them. So don’t worry about Matt. If he gives you any issues I’ll talk to him, don’t let him spoil your happiness.” “Thank you.” I replied, standing up to give him a hug. He sent me a soft smile before he left the room. I sunk back down onto the bed, my head falling back as I sighed deeply.  Friday night is going to be one for the books.

[citadelofswords]

davesprite and roxas. thats my writing prompt

there is a giant blanket fort taking up a good quarter of the room. roxas pauses, staring at it, and then walks around it to check— yep, that is almost entirely a quarter of the room. it’s brushing right up against the cardboard castle where the turtle puppet lives. 

someone has a lot of time on their hands.

it is also covered in orange feathers.

some sort of strange doohickey is connected up at what roxas… thinks might be the entrance to the fort. a sign is propped up on it that reads no entry (unless you are a super cool dubiously real alternate version of a guy)(in which case the entry fee is apple juice)

roxas thinks about this for a second. he’s… not sure how cool he is, but he is the alternate version of a guy. well— he’s a nobody, after all, and he’s pretty sure that the fact that all his memories of twilight town are fake qualifies him as dubiously real. he goes to the kitchen, collects two apple juices from the fridge, and then pokes the doohickey to see what it does.

a head pops out from the front of the fort. it is a boy who is entirely bright orange, with a ruff of similarly orange feathers around his neck. the boy looks at his apple juice, looks at the doohickey, and then looks at roxas.

“why would i lie about it?” roxas asks.

“fair enough,” the boy says. “guess i didn’t consider there’d be another guy like me on this train. stupid of me. welcome to casa strider, davesprite edition, make yourself comfortable, yada yada. davesprite is me, by the way.”

he holds the entrance open. roxas slips inside and settles on a pillow. davesprite follows after a moment and flops his entire body— what of it seems corporeal, anyway; his lower half vanishes into spirit aether after a point— across multiple pillows.

“far be it from me to have a feelings jam,” davesprite says, holding out a hand for the apple juice (roxas dutifully passes one over to him), “though that seems to be the general point of a blanket fort— not that i would know, all my blanket forts were population: one, and that one was me— how long you been on the train for?”

“like a day or two?” roxas says. he’s genuinely not sure. after twilight town, his sense of time is completely shot. he glances down at the number on his hand, starting to trail off his palm onto his wrist. “what about you?”

“long enough.” roxas narrows his eyes, but before he can push davesprite lets out a caw like a strange bird and his feathers all ruffle up and around. 

“sorry,” he says. “that happens. i’m part crow, in case the wings didn’t give it away.”

“were you born like that?” roxas asks, tipping his head to the side. the head and the hands look human enough, but roxas has seen enough pictures of magical creatures to not make assumptions. although— “no, wait. are you dead?”

davesprite laughs. “no,” he says. “i know i look like a ghost or whatever, but no. i’m— actually, i’m not really alive either.” he frowns. “just kind of here.”

roxas understands. he walks and talks and if he stops breathing things get really bad, but he doesn’t actually have a heartbeat— he’s checked. he’s definitely not dead, but he’s not sure that counts as alive either.

davesprite must see something on his face, because he says, “whoops. sorry for the existential crisis, dude.”

“no, it’s fine,” roxas says. davesprite has a number on his hand— something four digits, and normal. “just like, thinking that i understand that. the not being dead but not being alive thing.”

davesprite looks at him then, and then says, “i dunno. you look pretty alive to me. just because you’re like, an alternate version of some other guy— and i really don’t need to know deets on if you’re a clone or a guy from a different timeline or what, that’s your business and not mine— doesn’t mean you’re not alive.” his facial expression doesn’t change, nor does his tone, as he says, “meanwhile i’m just a game construct so i stopped counting as alive or dead like two and a half years ago.”

roxas considers explaining nobodies to him and decides he doesn’t feel like yelling at a guy he’s just met about how he’s wrong, no really, just because he’s saying it doesn’t mean it isn’t true. instead he objects,  “i don’t think that makes you not alive either. or like, i dunno. it still makes you real. maybe you should change the sign on the door, because from where i’m sitting you’re definitely real. even if you are an alternate version of some other guy.”

“oh.” davesprite says, and then they don’t talk for a while, sipping apple juice in quiet solidarity.

(neither of them notice davesprite’s number drop by over 400.)

[daisy-mooon]

Trap

Whumptober Day 11: Animal trap

Unformatted again sorry babes 💖

-

He's walked just barely around the wall when he steps into something, and realises that he maybe should not have stepped there.

"Apollo, what-" Meg crosses around to face him, and stops. She stares at his foot. "Is that a bear trap?"

"Um."

He looks down at what he definitely should not have stepped in, and true to Meg's words, his foot is wedged inside of a beartrap. Why there is a bear trap in the middle of Commodus' headquarters, he hasn't got the slightest clue, but it's there alright, and he's stepped in it.

He gestures weakly at it.

"...yep." Meg looks more confused and worried than scared or horrified, which he supposes is a good sign for how much damage its done. "Why-"

"What's up, Meggers, whats up Lest-" Leo decides to round the corner at that exact moment, and stares at his foot. "Holy fuck, is that a bear trap?"

He sprints forwards in a moment, hands running over the device. He's careful to be gentle. "It's made of imperial gold. Who the Hades makes a bear trap out of imperial gold?"

Then, he stops to examine the wound its made.

Silence.

"So.." The looseness of his jeans means that he cant really get a good look at it. Heknows that it hurts, and he knows from Britomartis' 'fun' that getting smacked with a bear trap is very, very bad, but he's not sure that he can actually feel it hurting. Is that good or bad? "How is it?"

Leo doesn't even bother to crack a joke. Uh oh.

"How much pain are you in right now?" This is the most serious he's ever seen him, and it's quite frankly terrifying. Apollo tries to glance at Meg for comfort. Her face is unusually pale.

He takes a moment to think about how much pain he's in. He looks carefully at the wound and catches a glance of blood and flesh and the tiniest peak of bone. It suddenly starts hurting a lot more than it did a few moments ago. "Ow."

"Okay… well, we need to get you back to me Waystation." Leo begins, and he opens his mouth immediately. "Dude. Imperial gold wounds will literally eat at your soul if you're not careful. I'm shocked you didn't lose your foot."

"He almost lost his foot?" Meg demands, snapping to life by his side. He's semi slumped against the wall, awkwardly trying to keep his leg still whilst breathing through the pain. This is ridiculous. He's a god. He's been stuck in traps like these before. Why does it hurt so much?

"He could have. Whoever designed this wasn't playing around. It's almost like Commodus wanted one of Apollo's feet or something."

Apollo chooses to ignore that, which is pretty easy, considering there are imperial gold teeth stabbing right into his leg, into muscle and grazing bone, and clenching around it. "

"We can't go back." He gasps oddly. "We need to find Georgina. And the Throne of Memory-"

Meg looks conflicted, and focuses on his. She's focusing very hard on his face to avoid looking at his leg.. "I don't think you can do a lot for Georgina with your foot… like that. But I don't know how we'd carry you back until we get her and the Throne."

"Oh gods." He hears Leo groan below, and he tries not to slump. "Meg, do you remember where we passed Commodus' weird health clinic thingy?"

"...yes?" The rhinestones in her glasses sparkle as she tilts her head.

"I'm going to need you to run there, and get me a painkiller, a wipe, and as many bandages as you can carry."

"Oh."

It's clear that she doesn't want to leave him, and she grips his hand stiffly before she ducks off, rushing forward with intensity. The pace is almost fast enough to match his own heartbeat, a desperately racing rhythm that drives discomfort into his bones. Apollo thunks his head back on the wall to try and closes his eyes in the attempt to distance himself from the hazy agony, but its fairly useless.

"Can you heal?" He opens his eyes briefly to see Leo's face looking up at him. Any and all temptations to smite him vanish completely as concern waters through his eyes.

"Heal who?" A shiver races through him, foot included. He almost throws up.

"Can you heal you?" Leo squints. "Everything I know is from YouTube tutorials. We didn't have a lot of doctors on the Argo II. I mainly just know how to be sure people don't die and then how to throw ambrosia at them in a nice way."

The shiver returns, and he slaps his eyes shut. "...don't think so."

Footsteps come racing back and Leo startles next to him, but he knows these footsteps. They're Meg's. Meg means safe. Usually. "I have the stuff you wanted."

He hears rummaging, and then silence. "...ibuprofen?"

"I didn't know if there was any…" a faint waving sound, "you know, spicy painkillers. Sorry."

"Ibuprofen takes about half an hour to work, and needs to be taken with liquid to swallow." Apollo mumbles. His body feels feverish. His leg feels like a supernova.

"I know, I know. We'll get you some water in a minute." He guesses that Leo has sat down next to him, and that he's looking at his foot. Wow. Lucky him. "I am not going to try and cauterise this, so when I pull the bear trap out, Meg, we need to be able to wrap his leg as soon as I clean it."

…what.

"You shouldn't take something you've been impaled with unless you're in a hospital or a doctor says it's safe to do so." Apollo protests weakly.

"We don't have any doctors or hospitals on hand right now, and if we leave you in the bear trap, Commodus is just going to find you and capture you." Fuck. Leo is right. It still doesn't make it any better. "I'm going to do a count down, okay?"

"Okay."

He tries to steel himself, tries to press his fingers into his palms and bites his lip. He misses the countdown entirely, and passes out the moment the bear trap yanks out of him.

-

Apollo comes too faintly, his eyes only just fluttering open, and the moment that his eye meets the fluorescent ceiling lights, he swears hard enough that Zeus would try to clean his mouth out with soap. He hasn't done that in millenia, but hey, he wouldn't put it past him.

"Wake up, dummy."

It's phrased more as a plead than a command, but he pushes himself up almost on instinct, and catches Meg's eyes almost immediately. She looks… strangely relieved, her face grim but glad too see him as she curls her arms around him in an unexpected hug.

"What-" He glances around, and sees the heavy bandaging around his foot, and the bloody, disassembled bear trap next to him.

He should have been thinking about how much pain he's in, or he should be thinking about how happy is to see Meg or how grateful he is that Leo took out the bear trap without killing him instantly, but the only thought he can muster is, "This is stupid."

Meg and Leo snort at the same time. Leo looks… delighted to see that he's okay, which is weird but whatever.

"M'kay." Apollo fumbles at the ground around him, and begins to prise himself out of the floor. "Georgina time."

"No." Meg scolds him at once, latching herself onto his arm like a koala bear. Which is sweet… but not very helpful considering he only has three fully functioning limbs to start with.

"We have to." He snipes back immediately. "You guys can go ahead. I'll just… shoot with my bow. Its a long range weapon anyway."

They exchange a look, and their shoulders droop. Again, this happens at the same time. Had they not had completely different parents and have a four year age gap, they may as well have been twins.

"God's, Lester." Leo pinches his nose bridge. His hands are stained faintly with blood. "Okay, fine. But your leg is going to hate you."

He decides to ignore what his leg will think, and pushes upwards. They had a child to rescue, and a chair to recover. They clearly didn't have time for his injury… as much as it did, absolutely hurt.

[zomboys-blog]

“They’re both standing with their boyfriends, but they’re looking at eachother only.”

pairings: tyler x wednesday, ajax x enid, wednesday x enid.

summary: forbidden love

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

wednesday sat there in the old booth she hadn’t been in since her highschool years. With a book laid upon the table and tyler beside her, she began to fully take in the scenery.

The weathervane now slightly run down yet still homely in its own way. Everything exactly as it was before so long ago, except this time she wasn’t surrounded by the loud talking of a certain blonde. Instead it’s replaced by the low calm voice of her boyfriend tyler.

“i suppose you’ll want to leave soon yes?”

“yeah sort of.. i hate being back in my old workplace.. it’s creepy”

tyler never appreciated the creepy things in life. Not like enid. Never like enid.

wednesday wondered if enid still appreciated the creepy side anymore like she did when they were together… as friends.

only friends. They could never be more than friends. They never even had a chance. Suppressed by the standards of this world.

Heart break kills.. so wednesday did the only thing she knew how to do. Vanish.

dark and sweaty. That was how she met tyler, In the woods running from him.. yet at the time you couldn’t tell it was him, he was in the shape of a 6’5 deformity.

If wednesday wasn’t being hunted she’d be intrigued.. which is what led her to willingly get kidnapped by the odd monster when it finally caught up to her.

There tyler formed disgustingly back into a human. They conversed. she stayed the night. tyler “read the signs”. took her on a date. something something something.

wednesday didn’t know all the details to it.. she knew it felt nothing like falling inlove with enid. She knew it felt wrong but what was she to do?

“are you ready to go?”

wednesday was snapped out of her thoughts by tyler stepping out of the booth signaling for wednesday to follow him.

wednesday nodded and got up grabbing her stuff and walking beside tyler.

tyler interlaced their fingers together and walked them both to the door, stupidly he opened the glass door and hit the man on the other side of it.

“oh shit, sorry man are you okay?”

the man opened his eyes obviously very out of it, he held his nose which was the main target in this assault.

“yeah don’t worry your all good.”

“babe! are you okay?”

wednesday’s head snapped towards the sound… the aggravating high pitched voice that she could recognize anywhere.

enid.

enid ran by the man who removed his hands and could now be identified as ajax.

enid stood tall, beautiful brown hair with blonde streaks, she looked more mature yet she still had her colorful clothing palette.

wednesday froze completely at the sight of them standing infront of her, she felt her heart crack and began squeezing her boyfriend’s hand harshly.

“ow.. baby that hurts.”

Enid finally acknowledged the couple infront of them after making sure her boyfriend was okay.

enids mouth dropped.

wednesday addams stood infront of her. Staring at her with wide eyes. holding Tyler galphins hand?!

they stared at eachother in complete silence, they felt like they were both back in highschool again.

except this time, they both had boyfriends.

They’re both standing with their boyfriends, but they’re looking at eachother only.

Wednesday knew it was a mistake to come back here.. yet she did in hopes to see enid again. Yet now that she did all she wanted was for her to disappear.

“uhm.. well i hope your alright dude.. we will get out of your hair now!”

tyler yanked wednesday along with him and walked away.

it was a mistake to come back here.

it wasn’t a mistake when they both looked back at eachother one last time.

ajax led enid into the weathervane.

tyler led wednesday to his car.

They were separated once more, even though the universe pushed so hard for them to meet again.. the world tore them apart.

[paradoxicalpaldeann]

hey everyone im abt to drop a silly amount of worldbuilding for something that was supposed to be an SR fic but idk i might make it it's own thing but i will definitely struggle with making the characters lol. very rough and unfiltered with no editing. good luck reading this

the setting i am planning is simultaneously dark-ish fantasy set in a weird time period that incorporates things from the 17th-19th centuries with a lot of funky magic and also sci-fi apocalypse at the same time. this makes sense i swear.

the setting's timeline starts in 2010 in our world, when the large hadron collider is able to successfully smash its first particles together at silly high speeds (it took them like 2 years after opening to get there due to. accidents i think. idk.) and instead of the thing everyone was worried about, which was "dude it's going to make microscopic black holes that fuck us up!!!! it's gonna make weird new particles which could hypothetically enter a state of runaway fusion and eat up the earth and make a really weird fucked up compact star!!!!" (they literally called these things strangelets. they are so mean to them.) we get an entirely brand new issue!!!

what is this brand new issue?? uhhh we uh. accidentally created a temporary tear between the planes and we managed to get really unlucky and instead of getting some silly ass plane like the water plane or jumpscaring a bunch of dead people in the afterlife plane we found the one with the rotting corpse of a dead god in it. yeah, some of the flesh and bone came through. like an absolutely tiny amount but it's still enough to completely pollute the earth even though the tear sealed itself seconds later. sorry we didn't raise the alarm straight away (even though an early alarm would do nothing) all the personnel in the LHC and all living humans within a 37km radius were too busy experiencing severe divine madness. yeah the world's gonna end now. sorry. it happens. anyways this completely unpredictable catastrophic Fucky Wucky releases a metric fuck ton of magical energy into the world, and basically causes a magic-based apocalypse. humans are not built for magic exposure so people end up undergoing a process which is called (at least, in this time period) 'teratomorphosis'. essentially, the excess magic causes people to begin transforming into monsters. magical monsters, and it is the kind of stereotypical magical monsters you'd find in a fantasy setting specifically because the magic is being influenced by what everyone thinks would happen, so when this starts to happen (it's a slow but unstoppable doom) people are like "oh, like slimes?" and the magic responds with all the enthusiasm of an overworked sleep deprived 45 year old man who's worked at this one factory all his life and just goes "well Fuck, I guess we're doing Slimes now. sure." although they're all a bit weird and funky because the magic is being exposed to roughly 6 billion different intepretations at once (this also causes regional monster distribution!!) so everything gets melted together so individual monster species can have similar traits across the board and only change as needed for their individual habitats.

this is a very slow apocalypse. takes like 15 years for all of humanity to vanish. and it is an apocalypse, as it's actually very rare for these first-wave monsters to retain their human sentience so they all start fucking shit up with all the fun new magic they can use. the teratomorphosis rolls out sort of like a wave, and it starts out as a very small exclusion zone around the LHC and affected local communities which have begun to worship a strange, unknowable god and this circle grows until it eventually covers the planet. if you're in the zone, teratomorphosis starts. the magic is still everywhere and you're absorbing it into ur body regardless of where you are, but the actual bad bit only happens if you're in the No Fun Zone. anyway as a result as time progresses more and more powerful monsters begin to emerge as people who've absorbed more magic on average begin to experience teratomorphosis.

important thing to note about this is that this means that all monsters, are technically human in a strange way. they are all direct descendants of humanity, which is also why monster hybrids end up being a thing later.

anyway, despite the fact that there is quite literally nothing that can be done to stop this people still try. the verrrry opposite side of the world to where the lhc is, is apparently in the Middle of the Fucking Ocean near the Chatham Islands, which is a part of new zealand. when we figure out that's probably going to be the last safe place a pretty big base/stronghold is set up there to try and see what can be done. it's. very hopeless. but the best and brightest of humanity still try, cataloguing as much of humanity's knowledge in a vast database at the heart of the complex. i haven't decided how many people are there but it's a significant amount. why? oho.

when the Bullshit finally reaches them we get another fun case of Regional Monster Distribution as everyone within the stronghold become the First Dragons, and they all also retain their human sentience and memories. dragons are very special in this world. they're essentially god-like, having immortality and destructive powers with almost impenetrable scales. they can still be killed (and this becomes even more true for the descendants of the First Dragons) but in this current world state there's fuck all that can do it.

an offshoot of the First Dragons end up forming a seperate faction, the Archivists. the Archivists have decided to dedicate their new lives to protecting the immense stores of knowledge they have kept safe and passing it onto the next sentient species to walk the earth.

a lot of time passes, now. like, a lot. during this time the Archivists also find out that whilst modern technology is fine around magic energy, the more rudimentary and historical kinds of electricity based technology (which would most likely be all the next sentient race could make for a while) don't vibe with magic and throw a hissy fit over it. so they put that on the backburner and figure out magic based tech (which is also better for the enviroment in an ironic way)

gonna try to keep it brief but essentially Humans rock the fuck up again. nobody knows why. but they're back, baby! second-wave humans (as the dragons call them) are actually used to magic in their environment, and do not undergo teratomorphosis unless they absorb too much magic which Does Not Happen unless u specifically try to fuck around.

anyways, magic is a thing. yeah! magic is mainly done through enchantments on objects (spells? bless you /j) which humans can then channel mana (or whatever the fuck your region and/or local religion calls it- there's a lot of differences in dialect here) through to activate the enchantment and Do The Thing. there's like, three main ways of gathering magic to use. stealing, sharing and the self. stealing is any kind of mana production that actively drains another source to make channelable (or active) mana, such as a power plant which sucks the life out of the surrounding enviroment, literally fucking everything a vampire does, or sacrifice. sharing is when one or more individuals pool their internal mana to use, such as group channeling (everyone sits in a funky chalk circle with matching outfits) or bonds such as soul-bonds or tethers between a summoner and their summoned creatures. the self refers to the innate magic everyone has, which is usually quite small and can only be used for simple enchanted items or incredibly over-engineered items which have their own methods of generating mana.

it is also possible for one to modify themselves to gain a bigger pool of innate magic, and some people are born like this. people like this are commonly called Magebloods, although again name varies per region. magebloods don't live very long at all, since they have to maintain a very fine balance between their insane amount of magic and losing themselves to the 'scourge of the heavens'- or, teratomorphosis. magebloods are very recognisable they all look funky cause. excess magic. which also causes health issues so even if they don't succumb to teratomorphosis they'll probably die young anyway

also at some point during history the Archivists attempt to reveal themselves to the new humans and it backfires horribly leading to the Great Culling, in which dragons were ruthlessly hunted for sport until they reached near extinction. very few of the First Dragons remain, and even less of the Archivists. i love this setting i will expand on it more in the future i swear i have SO many ideas

[sparklyslug]

just here to say i am obsessed with The (Monster-Hunting) Shop Around the Corner and am eagerly awaiting the last chapter!! idk if you ever do lil previews, totally fine if not, but just here to beg for a little snippet in case you do!

WAUGH THANK YOU SO MUCH! I really really appreciate that! I’m sorry it’s taken longer than planned for the final chapter, work revved up in February and this month I’m focusing on my @strangerthingsreversebigbang, but THEN! UPDATE! I PROMISE! But thank you so so so much for enjoying it so far.

So such patience and kindness of course can only be rewarded with a snippet ahahaha!

……….

Steve’s ringing up a sweet mom (looking for something for her 10-year-old daughter: B*Witched was an easy sell, hiding it from Ned was not) when Eddie Munson breezes through the door. Raising what looks like two paper coffee cups in greeting, one in each hand, and grinning at Steve.

After a moment of surprise, Steve gives him a one second nod, and focuses on wrapping up the sale. Out of the corner of his eye, he tracks Eddie carefully setting the cups down and moving around the shop. “Let me know how she likes it,” Steve says to the mother as she hands her the bag and her receipt, tearing his eyes away from Eddie. With a nod and a smile, she’s out the door, and Steve rests his arms on the counter, regarding Eddie.

He’s lucky it’s just Steve in here right now; he’s apparently forgotten that this time of year your average Chicagoan usually is wrapped up in several layers, a winter coat being the most essential one of them. But Eddie seems comfortable as a September day in his charcoal gray sweater and black jeans, even pushes up the sleeves a little to expose tattooed forearms as he dives into a crate of classic metal LPs.

“Hey kid,” he calls across the store, when Eddie appears to have vanished completely into some music nerd heaven, and forgotten whyever it is he showed up here. “You gonna get your greasy mitts all over every cover, or you actually gonna buy something?”

Eddie’s head shoots up, and after a moment’s confusion his face breaks open into another grin.

“Dude, were you also a frequent shopper at The Tune Factory? Because that was a perfect Mr. Wilkins impression.”

“Where do you think I got all my Wham tapes?” Steve laughs.

“Funny we never ran into each other there,” Eddie says easily, making his way back over to the counter.

“Yeah, that’s true,” Steve says slowly, thinking that it isn’t that funny at all. He doesn’t know which would have gone over worse back then: if Steve had tried to strike up a conversation with Eddie, or if Eddie had tried the same thing with him. He figures Eddie has to know this too, but. Yeah, it’s nice to pretend that it would have been otherwise, now that they’re here.

There’s something different about Eddie today. And not just the forgotten jacket, or the break from his undertaker monochrome approach. Maybe it’s just how he leans a hand on his chin easily, smiling up at Steve.

Huh. Guess it takes seeing Eddie without that thread of stress running through him, to realize it had been there this whole time.

“So what’s a guy like you doing in a dump like this?” Eddie asks. And actually bats his lashes at Steve, which is alarmingly effective given the materials the guy is working with.

“Making minimum wage,” Steve says dryly. “You’re in a good mood.”

“Well, I had my hands full with this totally needy freeloader all last week, and I finally got my place back to myself,” Eddie says easily. “So, lots to celebrate.”

“I bet,” Steve says, cocking an eyebrow at him.

“Speaking of which,” Eddie says, looking around for where he left the cups. “How are you feeling?”

“All good,” Steve admits, pointing over at the display case currently displaying Eddie’s drinks. “Not even a sniffle. And the, uh, sting already looks smaller.” That could be because the bruising around it shaped like Eddie’s mouth has finally faded, but Steve isn’t going to say that.

Eddie grabs the cups, and comes back to the counter.

“Glad to hear it. And feeling any otherworldly urges? Any cravings for blood, or likelihood of sprouting wings?”

“Oh, y’know. No more than usual.”

Eddie rewards him for that one with a laugh. “My business here is two-fold. Okay, actually–three-fold. I did really want to see how you were doing. But also, happened to be in the area, which happens to also be the area of one of the best cocoa spots in town. And also…”

Steve snorts a laugh as Eddie slides one of the cups across the countertop, pushing it along with one finger and looking at Steve with a wide-eyed smile.

“And also… someone might have been spreading rumors around town that you’re all on your lonesome this week, for a certain celebration of American consumption and excess.”

“Someone, huh?” Steve takes the cup, wrapping both palms around it and enjoying the warmth for a second. “Whoever could it be.”

“We may never know,” Eddie says solemnly. “But I figure Wayne's got a big ol couch with room for one more. And I would personally appreciate someone who can entertain him on whatever is happening with ‘The Big Game’–” Steve snorts as Eddie does the air quotes “–so I can get a turkey nap in, undisturbed.”

“So, are you doing me a favor? Or Wayne a favor?”

“Please, I am doing myself a favor,” Eddie says firmly. “I have been trying for more than twenty years to persuade Wayne that there’s no converting me to football. Being gay? After a weekend fishing trip to collect his thoughts, he took that no problem. Being bored to fucking tears by the struggles of the Colts? He’s never been able to accept it.”

Steve laughs. “Yeah, I can talk sports with your uncle for an afternoon. Give you a break.”

Eddie stands up straight, blinking in surprise before he can cover it with an awkward smile. Which is, uh, fair. Steve kind of surprised himself too. Had no intention of actually talking to Wayne and Eddie about Thanksgiving in the first place, whatever he had promised Dustin (which Dustin had probably figured, since he clearly worked it from the other angle, the little jerk). Even in the moment, once he realized what Eddie was asking, he had been mentally preparing a gentle brush off, maybe an I’ll think about it and then conveniently forgetting to say anything until, whoops, whaddaya know, it’s Black Friday.

Steve takes a sip of the cocoa to cover this inexplicably awkward moment, and sputters at the taste.

“Best cocoa in the city?” He manages.

Eddie reaches into his back pocket, and pulls out two mini bottles of whiskey.

“With a few Eddie Munson adjustments,” he says. “Perfect for a long walk home, on a cold November night.”

[anywaymuahahahaha]

Kirby’s Surprise Sleepover Adventure!

Chapter Five: Seeing Red

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Magolor and Elfilin headed outside towards the lake behind Kirby’s house. Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee were already there tossing some pool toys into the water. Kirby saw them and waved at them.

“Over here!” He called out enthusiastically.

Elfilin smiled and picked up his pace. Magolor, on the other hand, seemed to slow down to a complete halt. He glanced at the water and shuddered a bit. He shook it off and continued to follow Elfilin.

“Oooh! This is gonna be so much fun! It’s been forever since I last went swimming! What about you, Magolor?” Elfilin said, smiling.

“Well…” Magolor began but stopped when they finally reached Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee. Kirby dashed over to them, clutching a variety of different pool toys.

"This is my favorite swimming spot, and it's right here in my own backyard!" He started. “We could race, relax or play all kinds of games! What should we do?”

While Elfilin appeared thrilled and eager to join in the fun, Magolor appeared somewhat apprehensive and worried. He was twiddling his hands together and looking around uncomfortably. Elfilin noticed his change in mood and grew worried.

“Well, all I want to do is relax!” Bandana Waddle Dee said, tossing a pool floaty into the water.

“Yeah, that sounds, great!” Elfilin twirled about happily, hoping to lift Magolor’s spirit a bit.

"Watch this, Elfilin! Here I go!"

Kirby took off running and jumped high in the air. He performed a stylish flip, then promptly landed in the water, splashing everyone around him. Magolor quickly dimensional vanished to avoid getting wet, while Elfilin and Bandana Waddle Dee got a face full of water. They seemed to quickly laugh it off, but Magolor looked more annoyed than humored. 

Bandana Waddle Dee jumped into a floaty and swam over to Kirby. They playfully splashed each other around, then returned their attention to Magolor and Elfilin.

“Come on, guys! The water is great!” Kirby said sending a splash their way. Elfilin turned to Magolor and smiled, bouncing with glee.

“Are you ready!?” He said bursting with excitement. Magolor leaned forward and caught a glimpse of his reflection in the water. He glanced over at Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee and smiled nervously.

“Eh…You know what?…I think I’ll sit this one out. Go on without me little dude!” Magolor said as he backed away slowly from the water.

"Go…without you?" Elfilin said disappointed.

“Is something wrong?”

“It’s not that! It’s just, well…I only brought this one outfit, you know? I’d hate to get it all wet.” Magolor said nervously clutching his cape.

“Elfilin! Magolor! Are you two coming?” Kirby called out waving his hand at them.

Elfilin kept glancing between Magolor and Kirby, his eyes growing sadder and sadder.

“Hey, it’s alright! Go have fun with Kirby! I’ll just wait right here!” Magolor plopped down near the edge of the pond under a big, leafy tree.

“Hey, what’s the hold up!?” Kirby asked swimming over towards them. Bandana Waddle Dee remained where he was, hopeful that Magolor would indeed not join them.

“It’s fine, really...I’m just….not a fan of swimming…sorry. Besides, I’m pretty exhausted after running errands for you all day. I could use a break. I’ll just hang out here for now. Go have fun!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yep! Super sure.” He said nodding his head.

“Well…alright then, Magolor. I hope you change your mind and join us though! I don’t want you to feel left out of the fun or anything!”

“Kirby, I insist it’s alright! Really. Go splash around with your friends! I don’t mind a bit.”

“Well, we’ll be right over here if you change your mind, Magolor!” Kirby swam back towards Bandana Waddle Dee. Elfilin floated towards the water but stopped one last time.

“Hey, are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine! Really. I mean… No, I’m fine.”

“… Is there something you need to talk about? You can tell me, Magolor!” Elfilin floated closer to him.

Magolor sighed deeply and looked up at Elfilin with sad eyes.

"Well, it's just that…I guess I’m just a little annoyed about how no one seems to respect me around here. I mean, what’s with everyone giving me the third degree all the time? Sure, no one’s perfect, but I’m not such a bad guy, am I?" He stated dramatically, sulking his head down low. 

“What!? No way! You’re not a bad guy at all! You’re awesome!…Super awesome, even!” Elfilin exclaimed.

"I wish more folks around here felt the same way!…You know your friend Bandana Waddle Dee over there?"

Magolor glanced over at him, who was too busy having fun with Kirby to notice he was being talked about.

"He’s always been so cruel to me." Magolor said before turning his back to Elfilin for a brief moment. He appeared to wipe his eyes with his hands. He quickly turned back around, now crying with tears pouring down his face and dripping onto the ground. 

“…He and so many others!… No one wants to give someone like me a chance!” Magolor shook his fists dramatically as he choked on his words. Elfilin frowned sadly as he listened to him lament.

“Even with Kirby’s forgiveness, it just wasn’t enough to regain the trust of everyone. I’m still treated like a complete outcast. No matter what I do, it’s just not enough to be accepted.” Magolor’s usual soft and sweet voice was now somber and low. He sighed and looked over at Kirby, who was blissfully unaware they were still talking to each other, splashing about without a care in the world.

“You and Kirby…you’re the only ones who gave me a chance. The only ones who accepted my friendship. It’s all I ever wanted…”

“Magolor…You know, I’m kind of an outcast too…I know how it feels. But you’re not alone. I’m here for you!” Elfilin smiled and nodded at a Magolor. He then wiped the last of his tears away. He returned a smile to Elfilin.

“Your friendship truly means everything to me, Little Dude. Thank you.”

Elfilin blushed, his eyes wide and sparkling.

“Wow… Do you really mean that!?!…You can always count on me, Magolor! I’m glad to be your friend!!”

Magolor smiled and looked over at Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee who were busy swimming not too far from them.

“Well, I’m sure Kirby is eager for you to join them over there! Go have fun!” Magolor said, nodding his head.

“Well…alright then! See ya in a bit!” Elfilin waved goodbye and then turned towards the pond. He floated over the water to Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee who were relaxing in the cool, clean water.

“Hey, Elfilin!” Kirby said enthusiastically.

“Wow, Kirby! This is such a neat little pond! It’s just like the one back at home where we would go fishing!” Elflin playfully splashed around and swam all through the water. He flew back up and spun around sending a small splash of water around.

“Yeah! We always had a blast fishing together! I’m really glad you’re having so much fun, Elfilin!” Kirby said happily.

“Are you enjoying it here on Pop Star?” Bandana Waddle Dee asked.

“I sure am! It’s so nice here! And so pretty! You sure have a real great home here, Kirby! I can see why Magolor loves it here so much!”

Bandana Waddle Dee scowled at the sound of his name.

“Magolor!? Ugh. I miss the way things were before he showed up…”

Elfilin frowned.

Bandana Waddle Dee really doesn’t like Magolor… I wish there was something I could do…

“Hey! Speaking of Magolor… What were the two of you talking about over there?” Kirby asked.

“Oh!…well…” Elfilin glanced over to Magolor who had his back towards them not paying attention at all.

“Well, I suppose…if you really wanna know…He told me that he feels a little upset that he is still treated like an outcast around Dream Land. He said no one will accept his friendship.”

Bandana Waddle Dee suddenly flailed about and swam away from the two of them in a hurry.

“What’s wrong!?” Kirby asked, shocked at his friends sudden burst of anxiety.

Bandana Waddle Dee-terrified of being caught discussing Magolor behind his back again, nervously glanced over at the wizard, who was still sitting alone with his back turned towards them.

“I…just…I felt something brush my foot!…Sorry about that!” He chuckled nervously.

“Hey, Bandana Waddle Dee! Why don’t you go over and talk to Magolor?” Elfilin said.

“WHAT!? Why would I want to do that!?”

“Well, he seemed especially upset that you refuse to forgive him over what happened when you all first met!”

“ELFILIN!!!- Please…keep…your voice…down..” Bandana Waddle said anxiously flailing about, his voice growing muffled with every word.

“You know, he does look pretty sad sitting all alone over there. Maybe you should go talk to him!” Kirby said.

“What?! Not you too, Kirby!”

“It would probably cheer him up! He’s a nice guy after all! Just go talk to him!”

“Why don’t you go talk to him, Kirby? He likes you…a LOT more than he likes me.”

“That’s not true! Don’t be ridiculous. Magolor likes you, he is just…well, he’s weird.”

“Weird doesn’t even begin to cover it!”

Bandana Waddle Dee sighed and pondered to himself.

Magolor is a complete jerk! He hates me and I hate him! Well…I don’t know. Maybe I don’t hate him… Hate is a strong word. But he is a jerk! That much is true. But…maybe I am being too hard on him…If Kirby can forgive him, so should I, right?… He does look pretty pitiful over there doesn’t he?Maybe I should apologize and we could put an end to this bitter rivalry right here, right now!… Elfilin would be so happy! A fresh start! I just… have to talk to him… That’s all! You can do this, Bandana Waddle Dee!

“Alright then, fine! I’ll go talk to him. But if he doesn’t care about what I have to say, then there’s nothing I can do!”

“I’m sure he’ll appreciate every word! It would mean a lot to him! Thank you, Bandana Waddle Dee!” Elfilin said with a big smile. Kirby nodded in agreement.

Bandana Waddle Dee groaned under his breath, got of the pond and slowly made his way towards Magolor. He approached him with slight hesitation unsure of how to proceed.

“M-Magolor?…” He said softly. Magolor, seemed to be daydreaming and not paying a bit of attention to Bandana Waddle Dee. He took a few steps closer to him and raised his voice slightly.

“Magolor?…” he said taking another step closer to him.

Is he ignoring me?…Grrr. This guy is the worst. Why am I even doing this?

“Magolor!”

“What…do you want?” Magolor said, just slightly turning his face towards him.

“Oh- I’m sorry..I don’t mean to intrude I just…”

“I am trying to focus and you’re distracting me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just…wanted to say…” Bandana Waddle Dee kept stumbling over his words, growing more nervous and intimidated by the second.

“Well?” Magolor said, now clearly annoyed.

“Magolor, listen. I just…wanted to say…well…I’m so-”

Magolor rose slowly and turned around to face Bandana Waddle Dee. He cupped his hands together, performing his signature nod.

“Oh, just save it, Bandana Waddle Dee. I know what you’re trying to do.” He said coldly.

“…What!? I’m just-“

“Look…I know you’re here to ‘apologize’, so you can go back over to the Little Dude there and tell him all about how you’ve forgiven me! Is that right?” Magolor remarked, nodding his head quickly.

“No! Wait-I- I mean-“

“You don’t like me, and that’s fine. Truth be told, I don’t like you either. In fact, you really get on my nerves. I wish Kirby could see you for who you truly are. So mean…so cruel. To be honest, you’re just a big bully.” Magolor went on.

Bandana Waddle Dee stood stiff as a board as he took Magolors torrent of words head on. Over in the pond, Kirby and Elfilin could see them from but couldn’t hear anything being said.

“Sorry, but I’m not interested in your forgiveness or your friendship. I have Kirby and now, I have Elfilin, too. Whether you dislike me because of my actions in the past, or you resent me due to my status in Kirby’s life, it doesn’t make a difference to me.”

Bandana Waddle Dee’s face began to turn red. He started trembling from the anger building up inside of him. Magolor's verbal attack was getting too much for him to bear.

“I appreciate it, really. But you can keep your apology. I’m not- …W-What are you doing? Hey!…Get away from me! HEY!!!!”

*** SPLASH!!!! ***

Kirby and Elfilin heard a panicked yelp followed by a loud splash in the water. They looked over to see Bandana Waddle Dee standing at the edge of the pond- alone. He appeared flustered and his face was bright red. Magolor was no where in sight. Elfilin then watched as a slew of bubbles rose to the surface of the pond.

“Bandana Waddle Dee?…What was that!?” Kirby shouted.

Kirby's voice seemed to shake Bandana Waddle Dee out of the rage-induced trance he was in.

He shook his head quickly then looked down into the water with trepidation.

Oh, no…What have I done!?

“Hey! What happened to Magolor?” Elfilin cried out.

Bandana Waddle Dee gulped nervously and tried attempting to speak. His was voice was anxious and shaky.

“He…he…” Bandana Waddle Dee kept choking up as he struggled to get even one word out.

“It…it happened so fast! I- I didn’t mean to do it!” he said, his voice cracking.

“Just tell me what happened, Bandana Waddle Dee!” Kirby asked as Elfilin kept looking for a sign of Magolor.

“I…I…”

Before Bandana Waddle Dee could muster up another word, Magolor appeared right behind him instantly. He could feel his presence but was far too frightened to turn around. Magolor was soaking wet, dripping water from his ears all the way down his cape. There was a fierce look of rage in his eyes. Bandana Waddle Dee turned to him slowly, as pale as a ghost.

“Magolor…I…I’m sorry! I didn’t mean too-“

“You…You HOOLIGAN!” Magolor shouted, clenching his fists angrily.

Bandana Waddle Dee began to shake with fear. Before this, Elfilin had never seen Magolor show such anger. It sent chills down his spine.

“Magolor, I- I didn’t mean to do that! I was just- we were talking…and… and I-”

“What is wrong with you? Are you MAD!?” Magolor yelled flailing his hands about.

“Oh, no!” Kirby hastily exited the pond and came rushing towards his two arguing friends.

“Magolor, I…I’m so sorry! Please forgive me! It…It was an accident!” Bandana Waddle Dee said nervously waving his hands at him.

“An accident?! That was no accident! Let me show you what a real accident looks like-“

“Magolor!”

Kirby rushed over to Magolor and laid a kind hand on his shoulder. The hostile look in his eyes softened immediately and he quickly regained his composure. Kirby looked to Bandana Waddle Dee who was still on the ground cowering in fear. After a moment, Magolor sighed deeply and pulled Kirby’s hand off his shoulder. He then- to everyone’s shock-starting smiling and clapping. Kirby and Elfilin exchanged puzzled looks. Magolor, still dripping, sopping wet, dusted himself off and then smiled to his friends, nodding his head in delight.

“Well, it looks like I may have lost my temper there. My deepest apologies.”

He turned to Bandana Waddle Dee and clapped his hands happily once again.

“Oooh, that was a good one, Bandana Waddle Dee! You really got me!” He said still clapping.

Elfilin was a little perplexed by Magolor's rapid mood shift. He continued to stare in bewilderment.

Magolor then helped Bandana Waddle Dee in getting up and even brushed some dirt off of him. Kirby rushed to his side to lend a hand.

“Are you okay?” Kirby asked him.

“Yeah, Kirby, I’m fine. Thanks…”

Kirby exchanged glances with the two of them.

“Bandana Waddle Dee… You didn’t push him, did you?”

Bandana Waddle Dee let out a sad sigh and looked down in shame. Magolor, still completely drenched in pond water laid a firm hand on his shoulder and laughed.

“Oh, Kirby! We were just goofing off! You know, having some fun!” Magolor said, playfully jabbing Bandana Waddle Dee on the side a few times.

“Hmmm. I don’t know if I believe you. It sure didn’t look like goofing off to me.” Kirby said sternly.

Elfilin still felt a little shaken up over witnessing Magolor’s outburst. It was rather shocking considering that Magolor had been nothing but friendly and kind to him. He began to feel slightly worried. It was hard watching two of his good friends argue and not get along.

What if the things everyone said about Magolor being a bad guy are true?

“No, Kirby. It’s fine. Really…” Bandana Waddle Dee remarked as he shot a dirty look towards Magolor.

“See, Kirby? It’s fine! Nothing to worry about at all!” Magolor wrapped his wet hand around Bandana Waddle Dee and pulled him in closer.

“What was that splash, then? You’re all wet, I thought you didn’t want to swim?”

Bandana Waddle Dee pinched his brow and glared at the ground, his eyes scrunched shut.

“Kirby…I pushed him-“

“-Pushed me to let go and have fun! Kirby, you really do have great taste in friends! Bandana Waddle Dee here sure has a way with words!” Magolor said while giving him a rather aggressive pat on the back. Kirby remained doubtful.

“Magolor, are you telling the truth?” Kirby asked.

“Of course I am! Remember Kirby, I don’t lie anymore!”

Elfilin pondered Magolor’s statement.

He’s said that a few times now… ‘I don’t lie anymore…’ He must really have a bad history of telling lies… He lied to that shopkeeper… He lied to Meta Knight… You don’t think he’d… He isn’t… No! He would never lie to me! Friends don’t do that to their friends! Right?…

Kirby turned back to Bandana Waddle Dee.

“Is that really what happened? I know you’ll tell me the truth!”

Magolor appeared slightly offended by Kirby's statement, but maintained his cool nonetheless.

Bandana Waddle Dee could have taken this opportunity to finally tell Kirby and Elfilin about Magolor's rude and hateful remarks, but he chose to play along with Magolor's ruse. After all, it's only for the weekend. It's the least he can do for Elfilin.

“…He’s telling the truth, Kirby. Besides…I was only…kidding.” Bandana Waddle Dee said glaring at Magolor, slightly grinning.

Kirby smiled bounced around happily.

“Alright then! If everything is all right here then, come on let’s go!” Kirby anxiously ran back to the pond but stopped when he realized no one was following him.

“Are you guys coming!?”

Elfilin watched Bandana Waddle Dee and Magolor who were now caught up in an intense stare down.

“Are- are you coming?…” he said softly hoping to break the tension.

A smile creeped up on Magolor’s face and he began to laugh a little.

“Actually, Little Dude. I have an idea! Hang tight.”

Magolor floated up and turned towards Kirby. He cupped his hands together and nodded his head with a smile.

“Hey, Kirby! I think we’ve all had enough swimming for one day, wouldn’t you agree? I have a really good idea for a fun, new game all 4 of us could all play together!”

“Oh, really? What kind of game!?” Kirby said, his eyes shining brightly.

“I’ll tell you all about it once we go back inside! Trust me, it’s going to be a LOT of fun!” Magolor twirled with delight.

“Oh, wow! A fun, new game!?! That sounds exciting! I’ll hurry up and clean this mess up so we can head back inside!”

Kirby ran back and gathered up the pool toys. Elfilin followed him to help. Bandana Waddle Dee turned around to see Magolor now standing close behind him.

“Magolor!” He shrieked in surprise, still not quite used to Magolor’s casual use of his Dimensional Vanish.

Magolor held his hands together and nodded his head at him.

“Well, it looks as though you’re not nearly as spineless as I thought you were. Good for you!”

Magolor wringed out the excess water from his cape then splashed it in Bandana Waddle Dees face.

"However…" Magolor's tone of voice changed dramatically, becoming more serious and cryptic.

“Just know I’ll be planning my revenge for this.”

“R-revenge!?” Bandana Waddle Dee gasped.

“Of course! You didn’t think I’d just let you get away with pulling a stunt like that on me? Heeheehee… And here I thought you were smarter than that.”

“But- I said I was sorry!”

“You humiliated me in front of my good friends. Not to mention I’m freezing and soaking wet because of you. I could have drowned you know!”

Magolor tightened his grip on his cape, squeezing out more excess water.

“Yep! I’ll definitely get you back for this one.”

Magolor walked past Bandana Waddle Dee towards Kirby’s house covering his face as he tried to muffle his laughter.

“…and when you least expect it too! Hehehe! See you around…friend.”

Magolor winked at him, then floated off into Kirby's house, leaving Bandana Waddle Dee transfixed in fear.

Oh man… Why me!?

He plopped to the ground in anguish with nothing to do but wait for Kirby and Elfilin who were busy fishing out the pool toys from the pond.

Kirby seemed eager to move on, moving quickly and using his mighty inhale to suck up all the toys from the water quickly. They managed to get everything into a pile. Elfilin picked up as many as he could carry.

“Hey Kirby…Can I ask you something.. Something about Magolor?”

“Sure Elfilin, what is it?”

Elfilin pondered for a moment then shook his head, unable to find the right words.

“Actually, I think I’ll just ask him myself. Sorry…” he said softly.

“You know, Magolor really seems to like you a whole lot!” Kirby said.

“Really!?” Elfilin exclaimed, his hands flapping with joy.

“I can tell he really appreciates your kindness. You know, he doesn’t really have a lot of friends.”

“Why is that, Kirby? He’s so nice and really friendly. Why does everyone treat him the way they do?”

“I’ve known him for a while now, and he can be a really great friend when he wants to be! It’s just…well…”

“… Well?…”

“He was a lot different when we first met. You never got to see the side of him that we all saw.”

Kirby’s voice grew soft and solemn.

“I know he’s sorry for what he did. In fact, he really has changed! He’s not lying about that. He still did some pretty horrible things though. But I forgive him. I want to help him be better but he falls into his old habits a lot. He really does mean well, he just… Has a funny way of showing it I guess.”

“Well Kirby, I think it’s really cool that you can forgive him for betraying you the way he did.”

Kirby stared at Elfilin, his eyes wide with shock.

“Wait a minute, how do you know about that!?”

“Uhhh, what? No! I mean-”

“Hey, Kirby! Need any help?” Bandana Waddle Dee said running over to them.

“Oh, thanks Bandana Waddle Dee!” Kirby said smiling. Elfilin sighed in relief, hoping Kirby would forget what they were discussing.

The 3 friends gathered up the pool toys and retreated for Kirby’s home. They left the toys out in the sun to dry off and headed inside. Magolor already there was waiting for them. He nodded happily upon seeing them walk inside.

The three friends gathered the pool toys and headed back to Kirby's house. They quickly went in after setting the toys out in a sunny spot to dry. Inside, Magolor was already waiting for them. When he saw them enter, he happily nodded.

“It’s about time! I’ve been waiting!” Magolor was pacing about the room eagerly. Bandana Waddle Dee rolled his eyes and slouched on the couch, exhausted.

“Well, Magolor, what’s this exciting game you have planned!?” Kirby exclaimed, his eyes shining brightly as ever.

“Oh, it’s one of my all time favorites! You’re gonna love it!” Magolor clapped his hands with excitement. He smiled and nodded as Kirby and Elfilin sat down next to Bandana Waddle Dee.

“Prepare for some real fun. Are you ready?” Magolor exclaimed.

“The name of the game is….

Truth or dare!!!”

[previous chapter]

[table of contents]

[next chapter] (COMING SOON)